Investigation of an Outbreak of Varicella in Chandigarh, North India, Using a Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction Approach

Outbreaks of varicella are reported when susceptible population accumulates. This study reports a chickenpox outbreak in Burail in August 2014, wherein 20 laboratory-confirmed cases were identified by the detection of varicella zoster virus (VZV) DNA and VZV IgM antibodies. The viral load between vesicular swabs and serum samples from 8 patients with active lesions was found to have good correlation and further also related with disease severity. Real-time polymerase chain reaction can be useful for early diagnosis of an outbreak and vesicular swab can be used as a less invasive sample for assessing the disease severity.