Six-year study of the incidence of herpes in genital and nongenital cultures in a central Kentucky Medical Center patient population

Herpes infections are among the most common sexually transmitted diseases and are the most common cause of genital ulcer disease in the United States. This study addresses the changing distribution of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 in patients presenting for evaluation of herpetic infections. Viral culture results from the University of Kentucky Clinical Microbiology Laboratory were reviewed for a 6-year period (1994 through 1999). Data were collected on patient sex, site of culture, and culture result. These data were analyzed statistically to identify yearly trends. Of the 4,498 cultures analyzed, nearly equal proportions of HSV-1 (13.3%) and HSV-2 (12.0%) were detected for an overall culture positivity rate of 25.3%. Approximately two-thirds of all positive cultures were from women. Although HSV-2 remained the predominant type of genital herpes, over the 6-year span of this study, there was a trend toward increasing proportions of HSV-1 genitalis, with 31.8% of male patients and 44.8% of female patients demonstrating HSV-1 genitalis by 1999. The majority of patients with HSV in nongenital sites grew HSV-1. Although there was significant yearly variation, HSV-2 was isolated from only 9.4% of patients with nongenital HSV for the entire 6-year period. This study therefore concludes that HSV-2 remains primarily a genital pathogen, while HSV-1 is taking on an increasingly important role in causing genital ulcer disease in addition to being the primary nongenital HSV.