What Are the Symptoms of Herpes Simplex Keratitis?

Discussion Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections are common with an estimated 50% of the US population being infected by age 30, and with latent infection harboring in the trigeminal nerve in 100% of people by age 60 years. HSV infections can cause a vesicular or pustular skin rash that is painful, burning or pruritic and also flu-like symptoms with fever, chills, headache, and fatigue. HSV can also be asymptomatic. To laymen, herpes simplex viruses cause “cold sores,” but to health care personnel, herpes causes many systemic infections including eczema herpeticum, folliculitis, herpes gladiatorum, whitlow, encephalitis and ocular HSV. Ocular HSV has many forms including primary or recurrent disease and involvement of all ocular tissues including “…blepharitis, conjunctivitis, epithelial keratitis, stomal keratitis, endothelialitis, iritis, trabeculitis, and retinitis.” Ocular HSV infection is usually caused by HSV-1 but HSV-2 can cause keratitis. Neonatal primary HSV keratitis is caused by HSV-2 because of antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum exposure. HSV-2 seroprevalence in pregnancy is estimated to be 20-30%. Ocular HSV infections can cause significant complications including being the most common cause of corneal blindness in developed countries, and causing some form of visual disability in 1 million people/year globally. Children have worse outcomes with ocular HSV than adults “…includ[ing] recurrence (50%), corneal scarrin...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news