Overview: the biology of varicella-zoster virus infection.

Varicella-zoster virus infection is manifested initially as chickenpox. The virus persists for life in sensory nerve ganglia, from which it reactivates in many people to cause zoster. Among the many recognized complications of these infections, post-zoster neuralgia is the most frequently debilitating. The molecular events of virus replication, latency, and reactivation, and the pathogenesis of post-zoster neuralgia, are incompletely understood and inadequately addressed by current therapeutic strategies.