Rapid testing for HSV in vaginal specimens from laboring women had very high sensitivity and specificity.
Half of infants who acquire herpes simplex virus (HSV) perinatally have central nervous system involvement, with mortality and rates of neurologic damage at 30% and 40%, respectively. Maternal HSV shedding exposes neonates during vaginal delivery — but the threshold viral level that results in transmission is unknown, and a quick test is not available commercially. U.S. investigators developed and validated a rapid quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for maternal HSV. Vaginal samples from 211 nonpregnant women with herpetic lesions and 206 laboring women with no known HSV infection were analyzed; a previously validated HSV PCR assay served as the gold standard for estimating sensitivity and specificity.
Rapid HSV PCR results w…