Disseminated Herpes-Simplex-Virus Infections

Abstract

THE vagaries of the "creep" (herpes, from ̓ϵ́ρπϵιυ, to creep) never cease to amaze and confound its students. Here is an infection, medically recognized for several centuries, that affects close to 100 per cent of individuals in certain population groups, and whose virus has been identifiable in the laboratory for over 50 years. Yet it continues to demonstrate heretofore unrecorded manifestations in certain patients, as exemplified by the patients with disseminated fatal infections after burns described by Foley et al. in this issue of the Journal. Some of the complexities of herpes-"simplex" virus can well be appreciated, now that . . .