A Review of the Classical and Molecular Diagnostic Methods of Herpes Simplex Virus

Human Herpes Viruses (HSV) contain eight pathogens. HSV is one of the most widespread viruses in the world and due to the simplicity of the way of transmission the number of people infected with the virus has increased in per year. The virus creates a wide range of diseases, including mucosal herpes infections and deadly herpes simplex encephalitis. Today, for the diagnosis of HSV infection several classic methods such as Morphological, Immunomorphologic, Virological and Serological methods, including Microscopic examination, Virus Culture, Western Blot and ELISA are used. But the speed, sensitivity and specificity of nucleic acid techniques (Molecular Technique) such as simple and modified PCR technique and Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) have led them to become an attractive tool for diagnostic laboratories, and in particular the rapid identification of viral disease agents. In this review article, various methods for detecting herpes viruses were examined and compared.