The prevalence of HSV2 antibodies in Blood Transfusion Department (2002) from university of medical sciences

Herpes simplex virus infection is almost universal. This virus is of two types: HSV1 and HSV2 infect about 500,000 persons annually in the United States, and its prevalence has increased during the past decade. Usually HSV1 spreads through kissing and HSV2 through sexual intercourses. HSV1 is more frequently associated with oral infection and HSV2 can cause recurrent genital ulcers. No data is available about HSV2 prevalence in Iran. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of HSV2 antibodies in blood transfusion department in 2002. Data were collected in a cross-sectional study in 966 serum samples. In this study the population were examined for oral facial and genital herpes. In this survey age, sex, job, education, marrital status, family history of oral facial and genital herpes of the population were considered. Antibody (IgG) of HSV2 was assessed by using ELISA in this study. About 2.7% of the population were seropositive for HSV2 (2.8% were male and 2.6% were female). None of them have had clinical genital herpes during examination but about 1.1% (11 of 966) of them have had previous history of clinical genital herpes. The population have been examined for HIVAb, HBsAb and HCVAb, and the results were also negative. The prevalence of HSV2 had a significant trend of increasing for each higher level of age. Keywords: Viral infection, Herpes simplex, HSV1, HSV2, Herpes genitali