Prevalence of genital herpesvirus infection in Thai women

Specimens from uterine cervices were collected from 157 women patients from a Venereal Disease Clinic for isolation of Herpesvirus hominis type 2. None of these women had detectable herpetic lesions. Virus was isolated from 14 cases, 6 of whom also had gonorrhoea. These results indicated that a large number of women are shedding the virus asymptomatically. The sera from these patients as well as sera from 101 healthy controls were subjected to serological tests for herpesvirus antibody using the indirect haemagglutination (IHA) test and the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). It was found that both IHA titer and ELISA value of the sera from the patients were significantly higher than those of the control sera. Positive correlation between IHA and ELISA value was also found. Likewise was the demonstration of positive correlation between the positive virus isolation and the positive serological tests.