title: Herpes zoster in children and adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To follow the clinical course of herpes zoster and to determine the incidence, frequency of complications and association with malignancy in children and adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective cohort study in a primary health care setting in Iceland. The main outcome measures were age and sex distribution of patients and discomfort or pain 1, 3 and 12 months after the rash and general health before and 3 to 6 years after the zoster episode.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During observation of the target population for a period of 75750 person years, 121 episodes of acute zoster developed (incidence 1.6/1000/year) in 118 patients. End points were gained for all 118 patients after 554 person years of follow-up. Systemic acyclovir was never used. No patient developed postherpetic neuralgia, moderate or severe pain or any pain lasting longer than 1 month from start of the rash (95% confidence interval, 0 to 0.03). Potential immunomodulating conditions were diagnosed in 3 patients (2.5%) within 3 months of contracting zoster. Only 5 (4%) had a history of severe diseases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The probability of postherpetic neuralgia in children and adolescents is extremely low. Zoster is seldom associated with undiagnosed malignancy in the primary care setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Petursson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Helgason
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gudmundsson
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sigurdsson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006562:Herpes Zoster / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland / Q000453:epidemiology; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies