Chickenpox screening

Overview
The main purpose to screen for chickenpox is to be able to treat it early on before a clinical diagnosis can be made. The people that would need to be screened are the patients that do not currently have symptoms but are at high risk for developing chickenpox.

Tests
Blood tests are used to confirm immunity to the chickenpox virus. This can be done in cases in which the patient did not know he/she had been infected in the past. A positive test would show that antibodies to the chickenpox virus have developed in the blood. Another reason to screen would be if a patient had forgotten he/she had been previously immunized.