Prevalence of type specific Epstein-Barr virus in the genital tract of genital herpes suspected patients.

A total of 62 clinical specimens from the genital tract of patients who were suspected of contracting genital herpes were investigated for HSV infection by the virus isolation method, and also investigated for the co-infection with EBV infection by detecting EBV DNA using nested PCR. HSV infection was diagnosed in 30 (48.4%) of the study cases, and so was EBV. EBV DNA was present in 17 (56.7%) of the 30 HSV positive samples. No correlation was found between the co-existence of these two viruses together. EBV DNA was detected in genital specimens of cervical, vaginal, urethral, and anal swabs. Ninety per cent of EBV belonged to type 1, and the remainder belonged to type 2 and mixed types. The role of EBV in genital tract infection needs to be further investigated.