Recurrent herpes labialis in US children and youth.

OBJECTIVE

This study reports data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, 1988-1994 (NHANES III).

METHODS

NHANES III was a complex, multistage sample of 33 994 civilian, non-institutional individuals from 19 528 households. Dentist examiners were trained to recognize, classify oral mucosal lesions to include recurrent herpes labialis (RHL). Subjects >or=8 years of age were asked if they had cold sores in the past year and serologic tests for herpes virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) were performed on blood of youth >12 years of age.

RESULTS

Examinations were performed on 10 032 individuals 2-17 years of age. Overall point prevalence was 1.42% (0.69-2.15); annual prevalence in individuals 8-17 years of age was 14.77% (12.74-16.80); and serologic prevalence of HSV-1 in youth 12-17 years of age was 43.18% (38.88-47.48). When the data were subset to youth 12-17, annual prevalence for seropositives was 24.13% (20.44-27.82) compared with 16.87 (14.16-19.57) for all subjects. Approximately 25% of the seropositive youth had at least one recurrence in the past year.

CONCLUSION

As RHL is a recurrent infection, prevalence in a population will be related to the proportion of the population that has been infected with herpes simplex virus. When lesion-specific prevalences are cited in the literature, they should be stratified by covariates known to be associated with them. Future studies should examine RHL prevalence in infected individuals.