[Herpes zoster in infants].

The authors present the clinical history of four children under two years of age who were hospitalized in the Arnulfo Arias Madrid Medical Complex with the diagnosis of herpes zoster. The mothers of these children had varicella when in the third, sixth, eight and fifth month of pregnancy respectively and the children were 3, 24, 14 and 8 months old when they had herpes zoster. The first child (whose mother had varicella when she was three months pregnant) was born underweight, dysphagic and premature. The fourth (whose mother had varicella in the 5th. month of gestation) was only underweight. The other two (mothers had varicella in the 6th and 8th month of pregnancy, respectively) were born without apparent abnormality. The authors, based on their findings, believe that there is risk for the child to have a congenital malformation when the mother develops varicella in the first months of pregnancy.