Varicella Virus, the Old and the New

​I want to reawaken awareness of a disappearing but highly contagious infectious disease — varicella. Thanks to immunizations for the wild-type varicella virus and shingles, or herpes zoster, younger health care providers are less aware of the appearance and clinical presentations of this viral infection.Presentations of this viral disease have markedly declined and presentations are often atypical since the advent of immunizations for varicella in 1995. This DNA virus within the herpes virus family is generally a mild childhood disease but can wreak physical havoc in adults, especially pregnant women. Immunosuppressed adults and children can also experience life-threatening complications.Thankfully, the rate of infection, hospitalizations, and mortality have all declined. Nevertheless, we should not let our guard down. The disease is still out there and presents to the emergency department in less obvious or clear-cut presentations, ready to trip up the unsuspecting clinician.Most recently, a 6-year-old boy who had been vaccinated presented to our pediatric emergency department with the virus. I treated a febrile girl on chemotherapy for acute lymphocytic leukemia during the same shift, and one of the nurses working with us was pregnant. Thankfully, the infectious varicella patient did not come into contact with either of them. Nevertheless, the story could have been very different.Chickenpox is highly contagious, and secondary attack rates in households are as high as 9...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs