Recurrent herpes simplex labialis: viral replication and clinical course.

The purpose of this study was to provide additional information on the clinical course and viral replication kinetics of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in recurrent herpes labialis. Data were obtained on 20 subjects who were followed for five days from the first day of the lesion. HSV was isolated in 17 subjects (85%); 75% were positive on day 1 of the lesion. Median HSV titer on day 1 was 1.7 x 10(3)/0.2ml. Isolation rates and titers dropped sharply and virus could no longer be detected by day 4. The clinical course both in terms of the frequency and the severity of the symptoms paralleled the kinetics of viral replication. Thermography delineated location of subsequent lesions in three early symptomatic patients who were studied at the time when no visible lesions were observed. These data are felt to provide useful background information for future studies on the efficacy of topical antiviral agents.

Application of counterimmunoelectrophoresis in rapid detection of cytomegalovirus antibodies.

Determination of cytomegalovirus antibodies by counterimmune-electrophoresis correlated well with results of complement-fixation antibody studies. The sensitivity and specificity of the counterimmunoelectrophoresis method (vs. complement fixation) was 88.9%. Fourfold antibody increases detected by complement fixation were also detected by counterimmunoelectrophoresis. In addition, no cross-reaction was observed in the counterimmunoelectrophoresis assay between other DNA viral antisera and cytomegalovirus antigen (Ad-169).

Field trial of live attenuated influenza A/B ("Alice"/R-75) vaccine.

The reactogenicity, immunogenicity and protection effecacy of a serum inhibitor-resistant live attenuated influenza A/B ("Alice"/R-75) vaccine was determined in a group of health young volunteers. The influenza A component was derived from A/England/42/72 (H3N2) strain, and the B component from B/Hong Kong/5/72 strain. Sixty-eight subjects had hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) antibody titers to influenza A hemagglutinin (HA) antigen of less than or equal to 1:8 ("low A" group) and 75 had similarly low antibody titers to B HA antigen ("low B" group). Two inocula given 14 days apart consisted of vaccine in two doses (VV); one dose of vaccine followed by placebo (VP); or two doses of placebo (PP). The reactogenicity of the vaccine was low, with approximately 25% of subjects in both the immunized and placebo categories having symptoms mainly of respiratory nature. The A component of the vaccine was immunogenic with 90.9% of the subjects in the low A group VV category showing seroconversion. By contrast, only 20% of VV subjects in the low B group seroconverted to B antigen. The vaccine afforded significant protection againndergone a slight antigenic drift. There was no difference in protection afforded either by one or two doses of the vaccine. Thus the overall protection efficacy following at least one dose of the vaccine was 80.0% (p = .01), and in the low A group subjects it was 85.5% (p = .01).