ABSTRACT
This article reports on the prevalence of genital herpes infection in a sample of 635 female university students who were seen at the Gynecology Center of the University of Chile Student Medical Service. Viral isolation of genital secretions yielded 18 students (2.8 percent) with positive results, of whom 28 percent were asymptomatic shedders. Of the positive cases, 61 percent were clinically classified as recurrent and 39 percent as first episodes of genital herpes. Fluorescent monoclonal antibody typing of the isolated strains revealed that 72 percent were herpes simplex type 2 and 28 percent were type 1. The results confirm the importance of type 2 virus in genital herpes infection. They also point to asymptomatic shedders as a potential source of infection, and show the importance of a history of genital herpes in the identification of this population