• A 30-year-old healthy male physician developed grouped, papulovesicular lesions along the dermatomes of T<sub>1</sub>and T<sub>2</sub>of the left side of his body. The onset occurred two days after he accidentally pricked his right index finger with a needle that had been used to aspirate the acute papulovesicular lesions of a patient with severe herpes zoster. The clinical appearance and dermatomal distribution, the subsequent clinical course, the skin biopsy findings, and the substantial increase in complement-fixing antibody titer to the varicella-zoster (V-Z) virus in the convalescent serum samples are strong evidence for herpes zoster. Although it is generally believed that person-to-person transmission of zoster is rare and that herpes zoster results from the reactivation of a latent varicella virus, the present case suggests that zoster can be acquired from exogenous infection with a V-Z virus, at least in certain circumstances. (<i>Arch Dermatol</i>112:1755-1756, 1976)