The incidence and outcome of asymptomatic herpes simplex genitalis in an obstetric population.

In a prospective study of an obstetric population, 28 of 488 (4%) routine asymptomatic patients had positive cultures for herpes simplex virus from their genital tract. Cesarean section was carried out if the virus was present in the genital tract at the time of delivery. In one instance, a culture which had reverted to negative became positive again. No cases of neonatal herpes were reported in the time of the study. As yet, the infectivity of these subclinical cases is unclear, and the incidence of neonatal herpes is not as high as would be expected from the study. Further studies need to be carried out to evaluate the exact risk of the asymptomatic herpesvirus shedder to the infant at birth.