[Massive pneumonia with severe acute respiratory insufficiency after chicken pox in a female patient].

A female patient who developed massive bilateral pneumonia with severe respiratory insufficiency during recovery from varicella, is presented. Blood serologic analyses detected the cause of infection--Mycoplasma pneumoniae, while Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated by bacteriological examination of the sputum. M. pneumoniae is a causative agent of acute upper and lower respiratory airway infections with a frequently mild clinical picture. This agent rarely provokes massive pneumonia with severe clinical appearance as described in the patient, who had immunodeficiency due to previous infection with Varicella zoster virus.