Orígenes de los virus varicela-zóster y sus vacunas

In spite of their atavistic longevity, the varicella-zoster viruses (VZV) have had an identity problem for centuries. This work reviews the variety of names and metaphors the virus has received, and the difficulties in clarifying that they are microbes that cause epidemic disease in childhood and more severe but sporadic disease in the elderly, and in distinguishing them from other microbes with which they were often confused. The research of Thomas Weller aimed at isolating VZV in the 1950s and the later work of the group from the University of Osaka, led by Michiaki Takahashi, in developing the first attenuated strain of a vaccine, completes this historical perspective of VZV.