Summary

A 73-year-old woman with a history of deceased donor kidney transplantation and a recent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, presented to the emergency department with an altered mental status. She was found to have varicella zoster virus VZV encephalitis based on cerebrospinal fluid analysis and was treated successfully with intravenous valaciclovir with an improvement in her mental status. A review of the literature shows very few case reports on patients with kidney transplantation developing VZV encephalitis. A few case reports and studies report an association between CMV and VZV infection. In these patients, CMV infection can cause a marked decline in immunity and this predisposes them to other infections. Such associations have also been reported between other types of virus infections from the Herpesviridae family. The risk of disseminated VZV infection increases in the presence of CMV infection.