The Elusive Virus

Abstract

Studies like those reported elsewhere in this issue of the Journal on the "activation" of herpes simplex and the treatment of herpes zoster have an import far beyond the successful management of a coldsore or shingles. To use a much overworked word, they are "basic" to an improved understanding of viruses affecting the central nervous system and may have applications to problems as far removed from coldsore and shingles as post-pertussis-inoculation encephalitis and poliomyelitis.The investigation of Carton and Kilbourne adds another specific insult that may "activate" herpetic infection to such well known triggers for coldsore as fever, exposure to . . .