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Investigators retrospectively assessed the clinical presentation of infants <60 days of age with final diagnoses of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection who were admitted to a U.S. pediatric tertiary-care hospital between 1988 and 2009. Per protocol at the institution, all infants ≤21 days of age who were admitted and empirically treated with antibiotics were also given acyclovir.
Of 32 infants identified (1.3% of those treated with empirical acyclovir), 25 had confirmed HSV infection (by polymerase chain reaction [PCR] testing or culture of cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] or mucocutaneous lesions), and 7 had probable HSV infection (clinical course suggesting HSV and either mucocutaneous lesions and cultures performed only after acyclovir treatmen…