Varicella

Varicella is a topic covered in the 5-Minute Emergency Consult.

To view the entire topic, please or .

Emergency Central is a collection of disease, drug, and test information including 5-Minute Emergency Medicine Consult, Davis’s Drug, McGraw-Hill Medical’s Diagnosaurus®, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, and MEDLINE Journals created for emergency medicine professionals. Explore these free sample topics:

-- The first section of this topic is shown below --

Basics

Description

  • Commonly known as chickenpox
  • Also called varicella-zoster virus (VZV)
  • Most common in late winter and early spring
  • Vaccine has reduced incidence by 85%
  • Adults have a 15 times greater risk for death from varicella than children

Etiology

  • DNA virus:
    • Latency in cranial nerve ganglia, dorsal root ganglia, and autonomic ganglia with periodic reactivation
    • Presents as herpes zoster or shingles decades after primary infection
    • Virus is transmitted by aerosolized droplets from infected host to the respiratory mucosa of susceptible patient
    • Also transmitted by direct contact with skin lesions
    • Humans are only known reservoir

-- To view the remaining sections of this topic, please or --

Basics

Description

  • Commonly known as chickenpox
  • Also called varicella-zoster virus (VZV)
  • Most common in late winter and early spring
  • Vaccine has reduced incidence by 85%
  • Adults have a 15 times greater risk for death from varicella than children

Etiology

  • DNA virus:
    • Latency in cranial nerve ganglia, dorsal root ganglia, and autonomic ganglia with periodic reactivation
    • Presents as herpes zoster or shingles decades after primary infection
    • Virus is transmitted by aerosolized droplets from infected host to the respiratory mucosa of susceptible patient
    • Also transmitted by direct contact with skin lesions
    • Humans are only known reservoir

There's more to see -- the rest of this entry is available only to subscribers.