Varicella zoster virus or varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is one of eight herpesviruses known to infect humans. It causes chickenpox (varicella), a disease most commonly affecting children, teens, and young adults, and herpes zoster (shingles) in older adults; shingles is rare in children. VZV is a worldwide pathogen known by many names: chickenpox virus, varicella virus, zoster virus, and human herpesvirus type 3 (HHV-3). VZV infections are species-specific to humans, but can survive in external environments for a few hours, maybe a day or two.
VZV multiplies in the lungs, and causes a wide variety of symptoms. After the primary infection (chickenpox), the virus goes dormant in the nerves, including the cranial nerve ganglia, dorsal root ganglia, and autonomic ganglia. Many years after the patient has recovered from chickenpox, VZV can reactivate to cause neurologic conditions.
Within the human body it can be treated by a number of drugs and therapeutic agents including acyclovir for the chicken pox, famciclovir, valaciclovir for the shingles, zoster-immune globulin (ZIG), and vidarabine. VZV immune globulin is also a treatment.
