Evaluation of a near-patient test and 2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based assays for detecting anti-herpes simplex virus type-2 antibodies.

Several type-specific serologic assays for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2), based on glycoprotein G1 (gG1) and gG2, have recently been developed. These include immunodot (POCkit HSV-2) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The diagnostic value of POCkit HSV-2, a near-patient test, and of 2 immunoenzymatic, type-specific assays was evaluated on 122 patients attending an STD clinic. Western blot was used as the reference test. The sensitivity of POCkit HSV-2 was good but the specificity was poor, so that in a population with low seroprevalence, a positive result is likely to be a false positive. Analysis of 2 currently available HSV type-specific ELISAs yielded results suggesting that the sensitivity of these tests may also be suboptimal.

Seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus type 2 infection among attendees of a sexually transmitted disease clinic in Italy. Italian Herpes Forum.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: An increased prevalence of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection has been recently observed in industrialized countries. GOAL: To determine HSV-2 seroprevalence in a high-risk population in Italy. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was performed to ascertain the HSV-2 prevalence among 919 persons attending an STD clinic in northern Italy. A HSV-2-specific glycoprotein G-2-based immunoglobulin G enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (Gull/Meridian ELISA; Meridian Diagnostics, Cincinnati, OH) was used and validated against Western blot analysis. RESULTS: A prevalence of 24.6% was found without differences between males and females. Seroprevalence increased with age and number of partners during the previous year. Compared with Western blot analysis, the Gull/Meridian ELISA showed a sensitivity of 91.9% and a specificity of 98%, and positive and negative predictive values of 93.9% and 97.4%, respectively. CONCLUSION: This is the first Italian survey of HSV-2 infection conducted with a properly validated, Food and Drug Administration-approved, type-specific serologic method in a high-risk population. It is likely that between one to three million adults are infected with HSV-2.

Typing of hepatitis C virus by a new method based on restriction fragment length polymorphism.

A new restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis has been developed for hepatitis C virus (HCV) typing in the viral 5' non-coding region and contiguous core region. These genomic sequences were chosen for the relative nucleotide homology among different genotypes and for the presence of polymorphic sites. By employing two endonucleases (AccI and MboI) and, in some instances, a third one (EcoRII), we can unambiguously and reproducibly distinguish between genotypes and subtypes 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2c, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4a, 5a and 6a. The method was applied for diagnosing two Italian groups of HCV-infected individuals reflecting a randomly collected population and a group of intravenous drug users. The accuracy of this method has been validated by comparison with INNOLiPA and by sequencing. Our approach represents an improvement over previous RFLP methods, since typing is accurate and simpler.