Varicella-Zoster Virus

Varicella–zoster virus (VZV) is known to cause two diseases: Chickenpox (Varicella) and Shingles (Herpes Zoster).

Chickenpox:
The typical rash of chickenpox is made up of groups of small, itchy blisters surrounded by inflamed skin. The rash usually begins as one or two lesions, quickly spreading throughout the body including the trunk, scalp, face, arms, and legs. The total number of blisters varies greatly from person to person. Over four days, each blister tends to dry out and form a scab, which then falls off between 9 to 13 days later. The rash is usually preceded by a low-grade fever, fatigue, headache and flu-like symptoms. Chickenpox is a common contagious disease of children that usually has a benign course. However, chickenpox in adults or people with weakened immune systems can have serious complications.
Chickenpox is highly contagious, and is spread via infected airborne droplets following sneezing or coughing, or by direct contact with the discharge from pox lesions. The time between exposure to the virus and appearance of symptoms (called an incubation period) is between 10 and 20 days. The virus is contagious from two days before the rash appears until all of the lesions have crusted over.
Infection caused by Varicella-Zoster during pregnancy can cause serious disease or malformation of the fetus; if it occurs at the end of pregnancy, it can be fatal to the neonate.
Shingles:
Despite full recovery from chickenpox, the virus may lie dormant in nerve cells in the spine and may re-emerge in the form of Shingles many years after resolution of the primary disease. Reactivation of the dormant virus usually occurs when the immune system is compromised or during aging. Upon reactivation, the virus travels down the tract of the particular nerve where it was „hibernating“, first causing the pain and other sensations followed by a rash. The pattern or path that the symptoms follow is called a dermatome, which is essentially the area of the skin that the nerve supplies.
Serological methods are usually adopted to determine the immune state of subjects at risk, such as immuno-compromised patients, and in pre-natal and postnatal diagnosis of infected subjects.

Sample Volume : 10 µl
Controls/ Calibrators : 3 controls
Incubation : 20’+ 20’