Explore the recorded discovery and history of Varicella-zoster virus, with source links and stated limits.
Varicella-zoster virus causes chickenpox as a first infection. CDC states that shingles happens when the same virus reactivates in the body after a person has already had chickenpox. Someone with shingles cannot give another person shingles, but can pass chickenpox to a person who has never had it.
CDC's Pink Book records that Rudolf Steiner demonstrated in 1875 that chickenpox was caused by an infectious agent, by inoculating volunteers with vesicular fluid. Chickenpox was not reliably distinguished from smallpox until the end of the 19th century.
James von Bokay observed in 1888 that children who had never had chickenpox developed it after contact with a person who had shingles.
Thomas Weller used cell culture to isolate varicella-zoster virus from vesicular fluid of patients with chickenpox or shingles.
Edgar Hope-Simpson proposed in 1965 that herpes zoster results from reactivation of latent varicella-zoster virus. The first vaccine to reduce shingles risk was licensed in the United States in 2006.
A live, attenuated varicella vaccine developed in Japan in the 1970s was licensed in Japan and Korea in 1988 and in the United States in 1995; a combined MMRV vaccine followed in 2005.
Chickenpox and shingles were described long before the virus was isolated in 1954, and the term 'herpes zoster' dates to antiquity. These records identify scientific recognition rather than a first human infection.
Source check: 2026-09-19. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.