Article in Japanese

Children hospitalized with varicella or herpes zoster in a 6-year period before introduction of routine varicella vaccination

Hiromi HIBINO¹⁾, Naoko NISHIMURA¹⁾, Masahiro KAWAGUCHI¹⁾, Suguru TAKEUCHI¹⁾, Hattori FUMIHIKO¹⁾, Horiba KAZUHIRO¹⁾, Kensei GOTOH¹⁾, Haruki HOSONO¹⁾, Koji TAKEMOTO¹⁾, Takao OZAKI¹⁾

Clinical features were investigated retrospectively in 42 children admitted to this hospital with varicella or herpes zoster infection during the 6-year period before introduction of routine varicella vaccination. Thirty patients with varicella were hospitalized, which accounted for 3% of all varicella patients. Their median age was 3.1 years (28 days-19.0 years) and 93% were≤6 years old. The most common reason for hospitalization was 14 patients (47%) with exacerbated symptoms, and one each with complications of pneumonia and bacterial skin infection. Two children (7%) developed varicella after vaccination, and antibody titers in paired serum samples suggested secondary vaccine failure in both. Twelve patients with herpes zoster were hospitalized. Their median age was 10.1 years (2.0-15.0 years) and the male to female ratio was 1 : 2, thus indicating female predominance. Most of these patients were admitted for fever or pain control, while three (25%) had complications of the central nervous system (meningitis in 2 and facial paralysis in 1). Nine patients (75%) had a history of varicella. Although 2 of the 3 patients with no history of varicella had received vaccination, wild-type VZV DNA was detected in both of them. The trends of hospitalization for these diseases after introducing routine varicella vaccination will be focused on in the future.

---

1) Department of Pediatrics, Konan Kosei Hospital

Key words
Received	March 9, 2016
Accepted	June 20, 2016

28 (3)：145─151,2016