Prevalence of Antibody to Herpes simplex virus

Lee, Jin Tack; Kim, Young Tae

Abstract

Herpes simplex virus infections, with their increasing tendenes are one of the most common infectious diseases. But there have been no systematic investigations on the prevalence of HSV antibodies according to ages in Korea. We therefore decided to investigate this prevalence using micro-neutralization tests. Blood samples were collected from 502 randomly selected men and women, 5 months to 77 years of age who were outpatients or hospitalized patients at the Hanyang University Hospital between 1990-1991. Students at the Hanyang university college of medicine, and other volunteers were also tested. All of the serum samples were assayed for antibodies to HSV useing the microneutralization test. The Cos strain of HSV 1 and the YHS 2-1 strain of HSV 2 were use3 in our study. The antibody titers were expressed as the highest serum dilution causing 80% plaque reduction. The individuals with a neutralizing antibody titer of 1: 2 or higher to HSV 1 were regardel as having the antibody to HSV l. To determine HSV 2 antibody activity, the II/I index was used (II/I mdex : log HSV1 antibody titer/log, HSV 2 antibody titer, lI/I index >0.85) The results obtained were the followings : 1. HSV 1 antibodies were found at a relatively high rate in young a es and its prevalence gradually increased with age. 2. HSV 1 antibody titers iricreased with age. 3. HSV 2 antibodies were not found in children under 11 years of ae but were found in teenagers at a relatively low rate. The prevalence tended to increas with age. 4. HSV 2 antibody titers showed a higher value in those over 31 years of age.