Herpes-Simplex-Virus Encephalitis

Abstract

THE clinical manifestations of herpesvirus infection of the central nervous system are indistinguishable from those induced by many other infectious agents. Further characterization of this disease depends upon confirmation by virologic or histologic findings. In a three-year period (1961 to 1963) laboratory diagnosis of infection due to herpes-simplex virus was made in 52 patients with signs of Central-nervous-system disease, from whom specimens were submitted to the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory of the California State Department of Public Health. This paper describes the clinical course and follow-up findings in 18 of these cases that occurred in the San Francisco Bay . . .