Herpes Zoster in Children With Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

The epidemiology of herpes zoster in 226 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

“…During primary chemotherapy our incidence of HZ for seropositive children was comparable to or higher than previously reported in children with ALL 5–8. The higher incidence might be explained by the more intensive chemotherapy protocols used in our study period.…”

“…Although HZ is common in adults, less is known about the condition in children during chemotherapy for ALL. Previous studies are either more than 15–20 years old or include only small numbers of subjects 4–8. In contrast, our study reports the morbidity of zoster in a large cohort of patients treated according to contemporary chemotherapy protocols.…”

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of varicella zoster virus infection in children with hematologic malignancies in the acyclovir era

“…Until then, oral acyclovir therapy may be applicable in immunocompromised children without risk factors for complicated VZV infection. Although our study failed to show significant association between previous history of HCT and development of complicated VZV infection, some studies reported that a previous history of HCT was related to severe VZV infections [910], and severe VZV infection increased in patients with ALL who received steroid therapy within 3 weeks [16]. Accordingly, oral acyclovir therapy can be tried in cases of immunocompromised children who have not undergone HCT and have not recently received steroid therapy.…”

“…In addition, older children were included in the higher-risk groups, and VZV infection tends to occur more frequently in older children compared with younger children. In previous studies, VZV infection was found to be more severe among HCT recipients than in other immunocompromised patients [910], but no statistically significant difference was observed. Abdominal pain preceding the development of skin lesions has been associated with an increased severity of VZV infection [711], and gastrointestinal symptoms occurred more frequently in children with complications than in those without complications in the present study, although the difference was not statistically significant.…”

Incidence, risk factors and outcome of varicella-zoster virus infection in children after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

“…13 Subclinical VZV viraemia or HZ affected 41% VZV seropositive BMT recipients in one study. 14 Another study reported that subclinical VZV reactivation was detected in 26% of post-BMT patients.…”