HERPES SIMPLEX SKIN LESIONS SIMULATING SMALLPOX.

Abstract

THE WIDE VARIATION of clinical responses to herpes simplex virus infection is well known. In the present case the skin lesions are unusual and resemble mild smallpox or varioloid. For this reason strict isolation and notification of public health authorities were warranted. Report of a Case A 23-year-old white woman was admitted to a private hospital in Memphis on July 14, 1963, with a chief complaint of pain and itching in the vulvar region. She had been under therapy for chronic granulocytic leukemia, the diagnosis of which had been made four years previously at the birth of her only child. Approximately four weeks prior to admission, the patient went to Chicago where she visited a friend and worked in a plastics factory. The present illness began approximately a week before admission to the hospital when a febrile illness with pain, itching, and excoriation of the skin in the vulvar region