A quote from The New England
Journal of Medicine,
Vol. 338, No. 26, p 1927, 1998 states . "A recent
study found that the incidence
of adult
varicella (chickenpox) in
Japan is increasing,
with substantial social
cost"
Takayama, N, Ajisawa A, Negishi M, Masuda G, Minamitani
M. "Varicella in adulthood: clinical features, severity scores,
source of infection and complications" Kansenshogaku Zasshi,1997;
11:1113-9 (It is in
Japanese)
Kansenshogaku Zasshi 1997 Nov;71(11):1113-9
Takayama N, Ajisawa A, Negishi M, Masuda G, Minamitani M.
Tokyo Metropolitan
Komagome Hospital.
Varicella has been thought to be one of the representative
infectious disease in
childhood, but
recently we are under the impression that adults contracting
varicella are increasing in number. On the other hand, they say that
varicella generally causes a serious illness in adult patients. So
we investigated signs and symptoms of varicella,
source of
infection, occupations of adult patients, except
those who were immunologically compromised, by means of medical
records, to know the characteristics of varicella in adulthood.
According to the varicella severity score proposed by Nagai et al.,
varicella in the hospitalized adult patient was found to be much
severer than that in children. The most remarkable symptoms, were
high fever and
sore throat,
and these were the main reason of hospitalization in most of our
patients. Although severity scores were very high in admitted adult
patients with varicella, their clinical courses were not serious,
and most of them recovered with only supportive therapy. These
patients rarely suffered from complications, like pneumonia. If
adult patients with varicella hospitalized in the early stage and
received supportive care, they could recover without any
complications. In most cases of adult varicella the source of
infection was unknown. In the case of married persons, however, many
of them were infected through their child. When adults contract
varicella, not only the
patients themselves suffer from high fever and sore throat, but
also they act as the source of infection, if they are medical care
workers.
Furthermore, in public, the contraction of varicella results a
socioeconomic loss from suspension of business caused by the
illness. Prophylaxis with varicella vaccine, therefore, should be
considered, when there are people who have never contracted
varicella, whether or not they are medical staff.
