Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:46:37.938Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Varicella Serological Status of Healthcare Workers as a Guide to Whom to Test or Immunize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Philip Alfred Brunell*
Affiliation:
Ahmanson Pediatric Center, Los Angeles, California Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California
David Wood
Affiliation:
Shriners' Hospitals for Children, Tampa, Florida
*
Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, NIAID, NIH, Bldg 10, Rm 11N228, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892

Abstract

Only 1.6% of 1,331 hospital workers were seronegative for varicella-zoster virus (VZV), including 8.7% of those with a negative history and 0.5% of those with a positive history. Seronegativity was inversely related to age but unrelated to job category, exposure at work to VZV, country of origin, race, or gender.

Type
Concise Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Miller, E, Marshall, R. Vurdien, JE. Epidemiology, outcome and control of varicella-zoster virus infection. Reviews in Medical Microbiology 1993;4:222230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevention of varicella: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. MMWR 1996;45(RR-11):136.Google Scholar
3. Shehab, ZM, Brunell, PA. Susceptibility of hospital personnel to varicella-zoster virus. J Infect Dis 1984:150:786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. Weber, DJ, Rutala, WA Prevention and control of varicella-zoster infections in healthcare facilities. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1990;11:309313.Google Scholar
5. Shehab, ZM, Brunell, PA. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for susceptibility to varicella. J Infect Dis 1983;148:472476.Google ScholarPubMed
6. Longfield, JN, Winn, RE, Gibson, RL, Juchau, V. Varicella outbreaks in army recruits from Puerto Rico. Arch Intern Med 1990;150:970973.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7. Brunell, P. Varicella-zoster virus. In: Manual of Clinical Laboratory Immunology. Rose, N, De Macario, EC, Folds, JD, Lane, HC, Nakamura, R, eds. Washington, DC: American Society of Microbiology; 1997:631633.Google Scholar
8. Lipton, SV, Brunell, PA. Management of varicella exposure in a neonatal intensive care unit JAMA 1989;261:17821784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Gurevich, I, Jenson, L, Kalter, R, Kuhna, BA. Chickenpox in apparently ‘immune’ hospital workers. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1990;12: 510512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar