Herpes simplex virus infection in pregnancy and in neonate: status of art of epidemiology, diagnosis, therapy and preventio | Virology Journal BioMed Central Open Access Review Herpes simplex virus infection in pregnancy and in neonate status of art of epidemiology diagnosis therapy and prevention Elena Anzivino1 Daniela Fioriti2 Monica Mischitelli1 Anna Bellizzi1 Valentina Barucca1 Fernanda Chiarini1 and Valeria Pietropaolo 1 Address Department of Public Health Sciences Sapienza University Rome Italy and 2Department of Urology Sapienza University Rome Italy Email Elena Anzivino - Daniela Fioriti - Monica Mischitelli - monicamischitelli@ Anna Bellizzi - Valentina Barucca - valebarucca@ Fernanda Chiarini - Valeria Pietropaolo - Corresponding author Published 6 April 2009 Received 4 March 2009 Virology Journal 2009 6 40 doi 1743-422X-6-40 Accepted 6 April 2009 This article is available from http content 6 1 40 2009 Anzivino et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Herpes simplex virus HSV infection is one of the most common viral sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. The first time infection of the mother may lead to severe illness in pregnancy and may be associated with virus transmission from mother to foetus newborn. Since the incidence of this sexually transmitted infection continues to rise and because the greatest incidence of herpes simplex virus infections occur in women of reproductive age the risk of maternal transmission of the virus to the foetus or neonate has become a major health concern. On these purposes the Authors of this review looked for the medical literature and pertinent publications to define the status of art regarding .
