During 1981, 500,000 Americans are expected to suffer the symptoms of herpesvirus infections for the first time. I At fnt, they usually feel a tingling or burning sensation on their sktn. In a few hours or days, the skin surface wiU break into a measles-like rash near the sensitive area. A short time later, one or more blister-like sores will erupt. The sores are excruciatingly painful, lasting...

Herpes zoster (shingles), a painful and disabling disease, affects an estimated 1 million individuals in the United States annually and results in significant morbidity, lost productivity, and diminished quality of life. Herpes zoster constitutes the reactivation of varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chickenpox. After resolution of chickenpox, VZV remains dormant in dorsal...

Herpes simplex virus type 1 is an important epithelial pathogen and has the potential for significant morbidity in humans. Here we demonstrate that a cell surface scavenger receptor, macrophage receptor with collagenous structure (MARCO), previously thought to enhance antiviral defense by enabling nucleic acid recognition, is usurped by herpes simplex virus type 1 and functions together with he...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of herpes viruses in the semen of an asymptomatic male cohort with and without infertility problems and its association with altered semen parameters. DESIGN A prospective randomized study. SETTING Medical school and IVF clinic. PATIENT(S) One hundred seventy-two male patients undergoing routine semen analysis: 80 with normal semen parameters (control...

P ATIENTS WITH LYMPHOMA, leukemia, multiple myeloma, or other conditions characterized by an altered immunologic state have an increased susceptibility to the manifestations of common viral infections. In such patients, disseminated infections with the DNA viruses, herpes simplex, and herpes zoster have carried a poor prognosis.1’2 Various attempts have been made to treat these disseminated inf...

It has been proposed that intervertebral disc degeneration might be caused by low-grade infection. The purpose of the present study was to assess the incidence of herpes viruses in intervertebral disc specimens from patients with lumbar disc herniation. A polymerase chain reaction based assay was applied to screen for the DNA of eight different herpes viruses in 16 patients and two controls. DN...

BACKGROUND Herpes zoster occurs more commonly in patients taking immunosuppressive medications, although the risk associated with different medications is poorly understood. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 20,357 patients who were followed in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system and treated for rheumatoid arthritis from October 1998 through June 2005. Cox proport...

BackgroundHerpes zoster vaccine is currently recommended in the United States for immune competent individuals ≥60 years. The efficacy of the herpes zoster vaccine decreases with age and with time following vaccination.PurposeAn elderly man with herpes zoster following vaccination is described. The guidelines for vaccination and issues regarding re-vaccination are reviewed. METHODS PubMed was...

Herpes zoster is rare in healthy children, but immunocompromised persons have an increased risk of herpes zoster and severe diseases. Considering the very limited information on herpes zoster in children with cancer, we performed a nationwide population-based cohort study to estimate the incidence of herpes zoster in children with cancer and to explore the association between the 2 diseases.Dat...

PURPOSE Although a variety of malignant tumors are susceptible to therapy with oncolytic herpes simplex viruses, the determinants of tumor sensitivity to these viruses are poorly understood. Nectin-1 is a cell surface adhesion molecule that is a component of intercellular adherens junctions and also functions as a herpes viral receptor. Because highly invasive cells may have decreased intercell...