Challenges with controlling varicella in prison settings: experience of California, 2010 to 2011.

This article describes the epidemiology of varicella in one state prison in California during 2010 and 2011, control measures implemented, and associated costs. Eleven varicella cases were reported, of which nine were associated with two outbreaks. One outbreak consisted of three cases and the second consisted of six cases with two generations of spread.

Insights into pediatric herpes simplex encephalitis from a cohort of 21 children from the California Encephalitis Project, 1998-2011.

Twenty-one children with confirmed herpes simplex encephalitis were identified in the California Encephalitis Project.Noteworthy features included 6 (29%) patients with an initial negative herpes simplex virus cerebrospinal fluid polymerase chain reaction test and 13 (62%) patients with extratemporal lobe involvement identified by neuroimaging [corrected]. Eleven cases were <4 years of age, but all 4 fatal cases occurred in adolescents.

Validation of a microsphere-based immunoassay for detection of anti-West Nile virus and anti-St. Louis encephalitis virus immunoglobulin m antibodies.

A microsphere-based immunoassay (MIA) was previously developed that is capable of determining the presence of anti-West Nile (WN) virus or anti-St. Louis encephalitis (SLE) virus immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies in human serum or cerebrospinal fluid. The original data set on which the classification rules were based comprised 491 serum specimens obtained from the serum bank at the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (DVBID).