Shingles in a pediatric healthcare provider: Can patient care continue?

Herpes zoster, also known as shingles, results from a reactivation of latent Varicella zoster virus (VZV) within sensory ganglia and is characterized by a painful unilateral vesicular rash that affects one or more dermatomes. Reactivation occurs in one of three persons and results in an estimated million cases a year in the United States [1]. Although it is more common in the elderly this student had two risk factors for HZ. First, he contracted chickenpox in the first year of life, a time when there is a poor immune response to the virus and second, natural infection carries a higher risk for HZ than vaccination [2]. This may be attributed to the weakened ability of the attenuated virus to access the sensory nerves which makes it less likely to establish latency and reactivate [3].