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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…