[Recurrent Mollaret's meningitis of herpetic origin]

Benign recurrent meningitis, or Mollaret's meningitis, is an uncommon disease whose viral origin was long unidentified. Since 1991, about twenty cases have been reported in patients with herpes infection.

A female patient had experienced repeated episodes of spontaneous meningitis since 1983. The episodes resolved spontaneously and no etiology had been identified. A spinal tap was performed when the patient was again hospitalized a new episode of meningitis and PCR amplification of the herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV 2) was positive. The patient was given long term acyclovir per os. A new spinal tap after resolution of the meningitis episode was PCR HSV2 negative.

HSV2 infection is one of the known causes of Mollaret's meningitis. Long-term antiviral therapy appears to prevent recurrence as was observed in our patient.