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Incidence of varicella zoster virus infection low among pediatric cancer patients
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The incidence of varicella zoster virus infection is relatively low among a population of pediatric cancer patients, according to recent study results presented at the St. Jude/PIDS Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference.
Sergio Gomez, MD, of the department of hematology at the Hospital de Ninos Sor Maria Ludovica in Argentina, and colleagues evaluated 153 pediatric cancer patients at a pediatric hospital in Argentina between September 2010 and June 2013 to determine the burden of varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection.. Incidence, case-fatality proportions and corresponding mid-P-exact 95% confidence limits (CL) for VZV were estimated. Sixty-eight patients were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and more than half were male (54%).
Overall, there was a VZV incidence proportion of 2.6% (95% CL, 0.08-6.2) and all cases were among males.
Patients with acute myeloid leukemia had an incidence rate of VZV infection of 14% (95% CL, 3.6-33) compared with an incidence rate of 1.9% (95% CL, 0.03-6.2) for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (P=.02).
No deaths were reports among any of the patients infected with VZV.
“We came to find out that incidence is pretty low and this is a place, keep in mind too, that they don’t have any systematic vaccination program in place for children to begin with,” Gomez told Infectious Diseases in Children. “That makes it kind of interesting, too. It lends support for the idea that maybe it is better to let them go through the process.”
For more information:
Gomez S. Abstract 201420. Presented at: St. Jude/PIDS Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference 2014; Feb. 21-22, 2014; Memphis, Tenn.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.