Simplexa^™ VZV Direct Kit

Varicella-zoster virus infection causes two clinically distinct forms of disease, depending on whether an individual is experiencing a primary (chickenpox) or secondary infection (shingles)¹. Varicella-zoster virus is highly contagious, spread by exposure to an individual shedding virus from either a varicella or herpes zoster infection. The virus can be spread from person to person by direct contact, inhalation of aerosols from vesicular fluid of skin lesions of acute varicella or zoster and possibly through infected respiratory secretions that also may be aerosolized².

Common complications of VZV infection are bacterial infections of the skin and soft tissue in children and pneumonia in adults. Severe complications include encephalitis, pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia), bronchitis (either viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis), visceral dissemination (VZV infection of internal organs) and postherpetic neuralgia in immunocompromised individuals. Varicella-zoster virus can also complicate pregnancy; newborns of infected mothers have a small risk of developing congenital varicella syndrome or neonatal varicella².

Moreover VZV is now recognized as one of the leading causes of adult encephalitis and in several encephalitis studies, VZV was the second most common etiology identified, second only to HSV³. It is estimated that greater than 90 percent of the population will acquire the disease by the age of 15 and each of these persons is at risk for developing encephalitis caused by VZV⁴.

1. Albrecht MA. (2017, May 31). Diagnosis of varicella-zoster virus infection. UpToDate. Retrieved on 06/27/2018 from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/diagnosis-of-varicella-zoster-virus-infection.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Chicken Pox (Varicella). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/chickenpox/hcp/clinical-overview.html. 
3. Pahud BA, Glaser CA, Dekker CL, Arvin AM, and Schmid DS. Varicella zoster disease of the central nervous system: Epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory features 10 years after the introduction of the varicella vaccine. J Infect Dis. 2011; 203(3): 316–323.
4. Seward J, Jumaan A. VSV: persistence in the population. In: Arvin A, Campadelli-Fiume G, Mocarski E, et al., editors. Human Herpesviruses: Biology, Therapy, and Immunoprophylaxis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2007. Chapter 40. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK47367/.

A CLIA moderate complexity assay for the direct detection of the VZV DNA Polymerase gene from only 50 µl of CSF sample. The assay improves efficiency with a true sample-to-answer workflow without DNA extraction.