Lichen striatus is an uncommon, benign and self-limited dermatosis. It is clinically characterized by lichenoid papules arranged in bands following mainly the lines of Blaschko. The etiology is still unknown. It has been reported cases after viral infection, cutaneous injury, sunburn, irritant contact dermatitis, and immunization. We report the case of a 15-month-old girl that developed a lichen striatus on the arm after administration of both varicella and measles-mumps-rubella vaccines. The patient had a personal history of atopic dermatitis. Three months later it has resolved without any treatment, and residual lesions did not occur.

Measles is a common childhood disease that generally has a favorable outcome, but sometimes requires hospital admission. In this report, we evaluate the causes for admission by means of an observational, retrospective study of hospital stays due to complications of measles. We reviewed all the medical records corresponding to patients under fourteen years of age admitted to our hospital for measles between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2004. The most frequent complications were bacterial superinfection of the lesions and pneumonia. Systematic vaccination would decrease the incidence of this disease, as well as the rate of complications and admissions, and the indiscriminate use of antibiotics.

The objective of this study was to determine the rates of infection, hospitalization and complications of varicella on the Island of Mallorca. To study the incidence of varicella, we retrospectively reviewed the cases reported to the National Network of Epidemiologic Surveillance during the period 1982-2005. Rates of hospitalization were obtained from the discharge records of the patients admitted to the three public hospitals of the island during the periods 1995-2000 and 2001-2005. Rates of admission and complications in the reference hospital (Hospital Universitario Son Dureta) were also studied.

The incidence of varicella decreased from 994/100,000 population during the period 1982-1989 to 521 in 2001-2005 (p <0.0001). Overall, the rate of hospitalization for varicella increased significantly from 10.6/100,000 population aged <15 years (or 1.62/1,000 varicella cases) during the period 1995-2000 to 26.4/100,000 (or 3.54/1,000 cases) in 2001-2005 (p <0.0001). The mean age of the patients was 2.8 years and there were no deaths. The most frequent complications among the 147 children admitted to the reference hospital were: cellulitis (13%), impetigo (10.2%), pneumonia (9.5%), seizures (8.8%) and arthritis (4.8%). An increase in the prevalence of sepsis in hospitalized varicella patients was observed (2/45 versus 9/101, p= 0.3).

Although the incidence of varicella infection seems to be decreasing in Mallorca, we have observed an increase in hospital admissions and severe complications due to this infection. Vaccination against varicella at 12-18 months would probably reduce this trend.

We present a case of sickle cell disease (SCD) in a one-month-old black male infant, the heterozygous twin of a girl. He experienced a hemolytic and/or aplastic crisis coinciding with chickenpox. He was brought to the emergency room of our hospital for a possible choking episode. We detected anemia, with a hemoglobin level of 7 g/dL that decreased over the following 48 hours to 6.8 g/dL. After the correction of the anemia with the transfusion of 60 cc of packed red blood cells, the hemoglobin level increased to 13 g/dL. Physical examination revealed no evidence of splenomegaly and the fetal hemoglobin level was 85.2%. We consider that the infection by the varicella-zoster virus may have played a role in the production of the aplastic crisis and the lack of protection of the fetal hemoglobin despite the high concentration.

We introduce the case of a 3 year old with chicken pocks and superinfected facial cellulitis in which streptococcus pyogenes was isolated in blood cultures.

Over the last 30 years, cases of severe invasive group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal infections have been reported with increasing frequency. The course is often rapid, requiring prompt diagnosis and immediate treatment.

We report two cases of invasive streptococcal infection, both occurring in patients who had previously developed a viral infection, one of them after varicella infection and the other, after Epstein-Barr virus infection.

Introduction: It is difficult to carry out clinical trials with homeopathy, and therefore the controversy about its efficiency continues. There is no description, so far, about the impact of homeopathy on chicken pox.

Patients and methods: Exploratory prospective cohort study. Follow up on 160 children less than 15 years of age in three groups treated with homeopathy (group 1), conventional treatment (group 3) or both (group 2). The subjects where followed up until the end of convalescence. These were Number of skin lesions on the thorax, and evolution of symptoms as fever, itching, discomfort, sleep disorder, hunger and headache was analyzed.

Results: The group treated with homeopathy had an age older than (5.6 years vs. 4.2 yrs in group 3), with no differences in the presence of children with fever, itching and number of lesions at the first visit.

In the group treated with homeopathy, respect to the one that received symptomatic treatment there was a significant lower duration of fever (1.4 vs. 2.4 days), less length of the scratching lesions (1.4 vs. 1.8 days) and in the duration of the lesions (of 6.6 in the group treated with homeopathy and 9.2 days in the symptomatic group), without any modification in the rest of the variables.

Conclusions: In this exploratory observational study the homeopathic treatment indicates a possible benefit in reducing the symptoms and the duration of the chicken pox.

The chickenpox virus is known for its neurotropism and its abil ity to reinfection. Prevalence in the pregnant woman is of 0.7 per 1,000 but the risk of embryopathy is of 2%. The effects on the fetus can be lethal during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. We present a newborn baby with hypotonia, difficulty breathing, and skin scarring with metameric distribution. Suspicion of maternal infection at the 15th week of pregnancy is verified with positive serology in mother and newborn baby. The polymerase chain reaction for chickenpox is positive in the cerebrospinal fluid of the patient. A poor oral tolerance and aspiration pneumonia stand out. The CT shows an esophageal dilatation. The objective manometry shows hypoperistatic esophagus and the biopsy shows signs of myenteric plexus inflammation. Chorioretintis, liver and brain calcifications were also evident.

Esophageal hypomotility secondary to an extensive viremia is the main neurological manifestation in our case and determines the prognosis.