PEDIATRICS Vol. 82 No. 6 December 1988, pp. 953
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Passive Immunization Against Varicella in Children Receiving Cancer Chemotherapy

MAURIZIO ARTICO MD1

1 Pediatric Department, University of Pavia, Italy

To the Editor.—

Feldman and Lott (Pediatrics 1987;80:465-472) in their paper concerning the impact of antiviral therapy and prophylaxis on the natural course of varicella in children with cancer, report a significant reduction in the rate of varicella zoster virus pneumonitis if compared with untreated varicella; no deaths from varicella or its complications occurred in any of the recipients of passive immunoprophylaxis. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that, from 1981 to 1985, with the ready availability of varicella zoster immunoglobulin the incidence of varicella in patients with cancer at St Jude was 0.03%, an incidence not significantly different from the 0.05% during 1964 to 1968 when there was no high-titer globulin preparations for prophylaxis.