Simultaneous infection of measles and varicella-zoster virus in a child in India.

Simultaneous occurrence of measles and chickenpox in a single individual is a rare event despite the fact that each of these infections alone is very common. The clinical presentation and molecular characterization of a dual infection caused by measles and Varicella-Zoster virus (VZV) in a 3-year female child is reported for the first time from India. The child presented with high fever, cough, cervical lymphadenopathy, and maculopapular rash followed by vesicular skin rash. The child was not immunized against measles and chickenpox. The viral nucleic acids extracted from the clinical specimen were subjected to PCR-Sequencing for confirmation of a dual infection with measles and VZV. The PCR and sequence analysis from the throat swab samples confirmed the coinfection of wild-type measles (genotype D4) and Varicella-Zoster virus (PstI(+) BglI(+)). The measles virus RNA and VZV DNA could be detected successfully from a single specimen of a throat swab. The case recovered uneventfully. Dual infection with measles and VZV does occur but may be underreported in the literature.