Isolation and typing of herpes simplex viruses in the infections of mouth, respiratory and genital tracts.

ABSTRACT

A total of 60 herpes simplex virus (HSV) isolates obtained from individuals with genital herpes lesions in the mouth or respiratory illness were typed in this study. The HSV isolation rate in genital herpes was 31%. The typing was done by a direct fluorescent monoclonal antibody technique using commercial reagents. All the 60 Vero cell grown isolates were successfully typed without any indeterminate results. Nine isolates were typed as HSV 1 and 51 as HSV 2. The technique was easy to perform and read. HSV 2 was found to predominate in genital infections and HSV 1 in respiratory infections.