An outbreak of varicella in staff nurses exposed to a patient with localized herpes zoster

Abstract

An outbreak of varicella occurred in an internal medicine ward. The outbreak comprised 3 nurses, 2 of whom were directly exposed to an immunocompetent patient with localized herpes zoster. Our observation provides an argument for airborne precautions in hospitalized patients with localized herpes zoster.

Acknowledgements

This work was presented in part as an oral presentation at the 48^th ICAAC/IDSA 46^th annual meeting, Washington, DC, October 25–28, 2008.

Declaration of interest: No conflict of interest to declare.