Asymptomatic shedding of herpes simplex virus into the oral cavity of patients with atopic dermatitis.

Abstract

Asymptomatic shedding of herpes simplex virus (HSV) into the oral cavity is one of the important sources of the infection. We anticipated that the oral cavity is one of the possible sites of initial recurrence in patients with recurrent-type eczema herpeticum. Oral swabs were collected from 24 patients with atopic dermatitis aged from 13 to 29 years, and as a control population, from seven patients with skin diseases other than atopic dermatitis aged from 16 to 29 years. We tried to detect HSV DNA by the polymerase chain reaction method. HSV DNA was detected in eight out of 31 specimens from 15 patients with facial lesions of atopic dermatitis, and in one of 15 specimens from nine patients without facial atopic dermatitis, and in two of ten specimens from seven patients with other skin diseases. However, these differences are not statistically significant. Moreover, no patients developed eczema herpeticum during the period of this study. These results suggest that facial atopic dermatitis may not lead to oral HSV shedding, and there may be little opportunity for the virus in the oral cavity to contaminate other skin sites in adolescents and adults.