How does one prevent nosocomial spread of VZV infection ?
VZV is highly contagious and VZV infection may be life-threatening in certain patient populations. Nosocomial transmission of VZV infection occurs due to air-borne transmission from an index case of varicella or due to direct contact with lesions from a patient with dermatomal zoster. The following recommendations have been made to avoid or limit the nosocomial spread of VZV infection : • Avoid admitting a patient with VZV infection • If an immunocompetent patient with dermatomal zoster has to be admitted, he should be put on drainage and secretion precaution and people who haven’t had chickenpox should not be allowed to enter the room. • Severely immunocompromised persons who develop dermatomal zoster carry a higher risk of dissemination. Hence, they should be placed under strict isolation precautions. These may be relaxed to drainage and secretion procedure once the primary dermatomal begins to heal. • Patients with varicella or disseminated zoster should be placed on strict isolatio
