RESEARCH ARTICLE Stability of glycoprotein ge p

an Herpes simplex viruses (HSV) are widely distributed leading to blisters and ulcers in the anogenital region Haarr et al. BMC Infectious Diseases 2014, 14:63 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/14/63rabies virus (PRV), HSV-1 and HSV-2 belong to theUniversity of Bergen, Bergen, Norway Full list of author information is available at the end of the articlepathogens transmitted by close contact. Infection by type 1 (HSV-1) starts in childhood and increases during the following years so that more than 70 % of the popula-tion is seropositive at an age of 40 years [1]. HSV-1 af-fects the orofacial region. Additionally it has become a common cause of genital herpes infections, presently re-sponsible for at least 50 % of the cases in some regions [2,3]. Encephalitis due to HSV-1 infection is a much more rare, but devastating disease [4-7]. (for review, see ref. [8,9]). Prevalence of HSV-2 infections shows geographical variation and marked differences from one demographic group to another (reviewed in 1). It is high among prostitutes [10,11], related to number of sexual partners and to exposure to other sexually transmitted dis-eases [12,13]. The average prevalence is 17 % in USA [14] and varies between 7 % and 31 % among European adults [1]. There is a well-documented relationship be-tween infections with HSV-2 and HIV-1 [12,15-17]. HSV-2 seropositivity increases the risk for HIV acquisi-tion by a factor of 3 [15]. Together with varicella zoster virus (VZV) and pseudo