Varicella in hospital personnel: a challenge for the infection control practitioner.

Five unrelated cases of chickenpox (varicella) occurred in a 1-month period involving one physician, two house staff members, one medical student, and a nursing assistant at a large Veterans Administration medical center. This required immediate identification of susceptible employees and patients to prevent transmission to other personnel and patients. Negative history is not a reliable predictor of susceptibility. Of the fifty contacts reporting negative histories, only five persons (10%) were actually negative by antibody testing. No secondary cases of varicella occurred. These incidents suggested that more rapid prescreening of key hospital personnel with negative histories who have direct patient contact might be helpful in identifying susceptible employees in the future.