Skip Navigation

Age and Ageing 2008 37(2):235; doi:10.1093/ageing/afn005
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gunawardena, I.
Right arrow Articles by Attygalle, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gunawardena, I.
Right arrow Articles by Attygalle, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Copyright © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.

Clinical Reminders

Re-infection with primary varicella zoster in older people

Indunil Gunawardena1,* and Thurul Attygalle2

1 Department of Medicine for Elderly People, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, UK
2 Medicine for the Elderly, Colchester General Hospital, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed E-mail: indunil.gunawardena{at}nhs.net

Primary chickenpox is rare in older people as there is almost universal seroconversion by early adulthood. Re-infection with chickenpox in the absence of immunosuppression and presence of specific antibodies is even rarer but has been reported [1].

An 82-year-old previously healthy man developed a generalised blistering rash (see Figure 1 in the supplementary data on the journal's website http://www.ageing.oxfordjournals.org) diagnosed by his GP as pemphigus and treated with prednisolone 60 mg daily. He deteriorated and developed pneumonitis and respiratory failure needing high dependency care. Diagnosis of chickenpox was confirmed by positive varicella zoster PCR. His serology showed positive varicella zoster IgG antibodies with a delayed rise in titres by day 29. He responded well to treatment with aciclovir.

Chickenpox should still be considered in the elderly as misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment delays diagnosis and increases the risk of complications.


   Conflicts of interest
 
None


   Supplementary data
Top
 Supplementary data
References
 
Supplementary data for this article are available online at http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org.


   References
Top
 Supplementary data
 References
 

  1. Gershon AA, Steinberg SP, Gelb L. Clinical reinfection with varicella-zoster virus. J Infect Dis (1984) 149:137–42.[Web of Science][Medline]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gunawardena, I.
Right arrow Articles by Attygalle, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gunawardena, I.
Right arrow Articles by Attygalle, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?