Endonuclease Analysis of Viral DNA from Varicella and Subsequent Zoster Infections in the Same Patient

VARICELLA is a common exanthematous disease that affects most persons during childhood. Zoster is most prevalent in the elderly and is characterized by vesicular lesions similar to those of varicella but typically confined to a single cutaneous dermatome.¹ A series of careful clinical and epidemiologic studies conducted over the past century have led to the recognition that varicella and zoster are closely related infections.^{2 3 4} Those observations and the determination that varicella and zoster viruses behave similarly on in vitro cultivation led Hope-Simpson to postulate that zoster represents a reactivated infection with varicella virus that has persisted in a latent form.