Isolation of Herpes-Simplex Virus from a Patient with Erythema Multiforme Exudativum (Stevens–Johnson Syndrome)

Abstract

HEBRA,1 in 1866, used the term "erythema multiforme exudativum" to describe a mild systemic disease of unknown etiology characterized by recurrent pleomorphic skin eruptions. Four years earlier Bazin2 had noted a similar syndrome associated with stomatitis and conjunctivitis. Stevens and Johnson,3 in 1922, reported 2 cases of a similar but more severe disease, in which there was a dramatic onset with fever, conjunctivitis and a cutaneous eruption. Illnesses like these have been described by such names as ectodermatosis erosiva pluriorificialis, erythema multiforme exudatorum, dermatostomatitis and erythema bullosum malignans.In 1950 Robinson and McCrumb4 pointed out the similarities in the clinical . . .