EDITOR,—In their lesson of the week Andrew J Pollard and colleagues report 13 cases of severe bacterial infection associated with infection with varicella zoster virus.1 While such infection is the commonest cause of morbidity related to chickenpox in otherwise healthy children, it is uncommon in adults.2 3 We report our recent experience of chickenpox complicated by necrotising fasciitis and the toxic shock syndrome in a 32 year old …