Tampon culture for quantitation of cervicovaginal herpes simplex virus.

From 10(1) to 10(6) TCID50 (mean tissue culture infective doses) per ml HSV I and II can be quantitatively recorded from vaginal tampons. Tampons and sterile cotton swabs are equally sensitive in recovering HSV I and II. Direct cotton swab cultures of the cervix and cervicovaginal tampon cultures from the same patients recovered similar quantities of HSV, ranging from 1.5 to 6.5 log10 TCID50/ml in 5 patients.