[Diagnosis--serodiagnosis of alpha herpesviruses]

Herpes simplex virus(HSV) serodiagnosis concerns type-common diagnosis and type-specific diagnosis. Primary HSV infections can be diagnosed by type-common serological assays, and in the ideal case, in combination with virus isolation. HSV type 1 and HSV type 2 are very similar except for glycoprotein G(gG). This glycoprotein can be used to determine type-specific antibodies especially during initial non-primary infections. However, antibody response to gG is late compared to the response to type-common antibodies. A rapid diagnosis of acute varicella-zoster virus(VZV) infections are often needed in clinical settings and in these situations, diagnosis is performed by methods for rapid viral detection, and not by serology. Serological tests are usually used to screen for immunity against VZV.