BACKGROUND Famciclovir, the oral prodrug of penciclovir, is effective for the treatment of recurrent genital herpes. This randomized, clinic-initiated, double-blind trial compared the therapeutic efficacy and safety of treatment with famciclovir at dosages of 125 mg, 250 mg, and 500 mg twice daily for 5 days with placebo in immunocompetent adults with a recurrent episode of genital herpes. ME...

BACKGROUND First episode genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections can be classified into three groups, primary genital herpes (no previous exposure to HSV), non-primary first episode (IgG antibody to HSV of the non-presenting type), and first episode with pre-existing IgG HSV antibodies. The use of IgM to classify first episode genital herpes has not been evaluated. OBJECTIVE To evaluate...

OBJECTIVE To determine the variation in management of genital herpes by genitourinary physicians, and whether their duration of experience or gender influence their clinical management. METHODS A postal questionnaire was sent to UK consultant genitourinary physicians with detailed questions about management of primary and recurrent herpes. The gender and duration of genitourinary medicine exp...

Genital infection with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV -2) is increasingly common worldwide. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the epidemiology and natural history of genital herpes among GUM attendees with symptomatic genital herpes, and among HIV-l infected individuals. In our study of GUM attendees in the UK, we demonstrated HSV -1 to account for 9% of first episodes of genital he...

Herpes simplex virus 2 caused a genital ulcer, and a secondary herpetic whitlow appeared during acyclovir therapy. The secondary and recurrent whitlow isolates were acyclovir-resistant and temperature-sensitive in contrast to a genital isolate. We identified the ribonucleotide reductase mutation responsible for temperature-sensitivity by deep-sequencing analysis.

In this issue of the Journal, Tata and co-workers present data from a small, intensively studied group of women with genital herpes due to herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 2, demonstrating that during a 30-day period these women experienced both symptomatic and asymptomatic genital viral shedding bilaterally and at areas innervated by dorsal root nerve ganglia on both sides of the midline [1]. T...

A 38-year-old man with a history of recurrent genital ulceration initially diagnosed as genital herpes was admitted after presenting with paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. Echocardiography revealed aneurysm formation of the sinus of Valsalva. On diagnosis of an aneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva associated with Behçet's disease (BD), surgeon repaired the affected sinus only, and continuous steroid t...

INTRODUCTION Cases of idiopathic recurrent benign aseptic meningitis were first described by Mollaret. Today, herpes simplex virus (HSV) is considered the cause of most cases of Mollaret's meningitis. CASE REPORT A 40-year-old male was referred to our genitourinary medicine clinic with recurrent genital herpetic lesions. He had HSV-2-positive genital ulcers 8 years earlier. One year after the...

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) with a worldwide distribution has been reported in all human populations, resulting in a clinical spectrum of infections. Although HSV type 2 (HSV-2) is known as the most common cause of genital herpes, an increasing number of cases with genital herpes are caused by HSV-1. The present study aimed to discuss the changes in the epidemiology of HSV-1 infection i...

The presence of complement-fixing antibody to an early herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) antigen (the AG-4 antigen) was correlated with HSV-2 infection in the sera of patients with genital herpes. Eighty-eight per cent of sera taken two weeks after clinical diagnosis of a primary or recurrent herpes infection in patients, confirmed to have HSV-2 by virus isolation and typing, contained the an...