[Clinical aspects and importance of human herpex simplex infections. Results of herpes antigen therapy].

Herpes simplex diseases are among the most frequent sociomedical problems of our age. For the patients the recurrent diseases are particularly distressing depending on the frequency of relapse, their localization and clinical course. Immunological factors, especially cellular immune mechanisms seem to affect the frequency of relapse and particularly the clinical course of the relapse. Clinical experience so far with immunotherapy of relapsing herpes diseases with heat-inactivated herpes simplex virus antigen type 1 and type 2 are optimistic. Local painful swellings or more rarely the appearance of an urticaria have been described as side-effects within 10 years in 1 to 2% of patients.