Herpes simplex virus can cause serious ocular and systemic disease in the neonate. The mode of transmission to the neonate is usually from the maternal birth canal to the fetus intrapartum; but much more rarely, hematogenous transplacental infection can affect the developing fetus months prior to birth. Persistent fetal vasculature occurs when there is persistence of the fetal ocular vasculatur...

BACKGROUND The Surecell herpes (HSV) test kit is a test for detecting the presence of herpes simplex viral antigen by means of a monoclonal antibody based immunoassay. The test has proved to be highly sensitive and specific in diagnosing genital, oral, and dermatological herpes infections. METHODS In this study, samples from patients with ocular keratitis were evaluated by tissue cultures and...

Lithium carbonate inhibited plaque formation of herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 in rabbit kidney and Vero cells (50% effective dose, 435.5 to 490 micrograms/ml). Plasma lithium levels of 67 to 134 micrograms/ml were achieved by oral therapy in rabbits. However, neither ocular virus shedding nor virus-positive trigeminal ganglia were reduced after intentional reactivation of latent herpes sim...

PURPOSE To report two cases of herpes simplex keratitis following excimer laser application. METHODS Two immunocompetent patients with no history of ocular viral infection developed ulcers after LASIK and phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK), respectively. RESULTS Antiviral treatment was administered, and the lesions healed within 14 days. CONCLUSIONS These two cases suggest that herpes sim...

Viruses are a fundamental etiology of ocular inflammation, which may affect all structures of the organ. Advances in molecular diagnostics reveal an increasingly broader spectrum of virus-associated intraocular inflammation, including all members of the herpes family, rubella virus, and other more rare causes such as Epstein-Barr and chikungunya virus. In particular, viruses of the herpes famil...