A Colorimetric Microtiter Plate Polymerase Chain Reaction System That Detects Herpes Simplex Virus in Cerebrospinal Fluid and Discriminates Genotypes

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is an ubiquitous agent responsible for a wide variety of human infections. In addition to epithelial infections such as gingivostomatitis, pharyngitis, genital herpes, whitlow, conjunctivitis, and keratitis, HSV is an important cause of central nervous system (CNS) infections and accounts for 2–19% of human encephalitis cases (1 ,2 ). The clinical spectrum of CNS diseases has been recently expanded; for example, most cases of benign recurrent aseptic meningitis (Mollaret meningitis) are caused by HSV (3 ), especially HSV-2 (4 ). Because specific antiviral therapy is available, the rapid, definitive laboratory diagnosis of HSV is important to support clinical findings. Moreover, in the setting of possible HSV encephalitis, patients are often managed as inpatients while awaiting test results.