Significance of Herpesvirus Hominis in Respiratory Secretions of Man

Abstract

Four hundred and eighteen adults were inoculated with a respiratory virus and cultures performed serially. Herpesvirus hominis was isolated 27 times from 21 subjects (5 per cent). A random distribution of herpesvirus isolates was observed, and there was no relation to occurrence of respiratory illness. Localized lesions followed respiratory illness in four subjects, and H. hominis was isolated from respiratory secretions before these lesions developed. These findings suggest that herpesvirus rarely causes respiratory illness in adults with pre-existing serum antibody, that recurrent herpetic lesions develop when respiratory secretions contain herpesvirus and when respiratory or other illness decreases local tissue resistance to infection, and that chronic virus multiplication in sites with access to the eye and mouth, rather than reactivation of latent virus at the site of the recurrent lesions, is responsible for the presence of herpesvirus in respiratory secretions.