[Attempts at isolating viruses from the male urogenital tract in patients without symptoms of herpes simplex virus infections].

Materials from the urogenital tract (swabs, secretions, tissue probes) of 181 male patients of the Cologne area without manifest symptoms of a herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection were virologically examined. In no case any virus could be isolated. This seems to be an argument against the theory of extraneural persistence of HSV with chronic virus production and shedding, and even against the possibility of veneric transmission of HSV by asymptomatic men. This result is at variance to published results which were obtained in non-European countries with possibly patients of other socioeconomic status.