Prevalence of Specific Antibodies to Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 as Revealed by an Enzyme-linked Immunoassay and Western Blot Analysis

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections are characterized by a wide variety of symptoms ranging from asymptomatic infection to systemic involvement including encephalitis (1, 2). Two problems complicating identification of individuals infected with genital HSV are asymptomatic acquisition of the virus and insensitive viral detection methods (3, 4). As a result, a substantial population exists which is unaware of having an HSV infection yet is harboring latent virus. The implications of this population of infected but unaware people are significant for transmission to sexual partners or to neonates during birth.