Abstract
Seven adult patients with varicella (chickenpox) were treated using antiviral agent Ara A. These patients were relatively young (1832 years of age) and were otherwise healthy before they had suffered from this illness. Initiation of Ara A therapy was within 4 days from the onset, and high fever fell within 2 days after treatment. Skin rashes disappeared without any residual scars. Three patients revealed transient elevation of serum transaminases, but these were regarded as abnormal laboratory data due to vari-cella. CF antibody titres for varicella-zoster virus were raised significantly from 4 times to 16 or 256 times.
Varicella is a relatively common disease affecting young children, and because of its benign, self-limited nature, ordinary supportive therapy is usually sufficient for chil-dren with varicella. However, adult patients with this disease usually show relatively severe symptoms and signs, such as high fever and malaise. We considered that treat-ment using antiviral agent, Ara A be recommended for such cases.
