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Recurrent herpes labialis in US children and youth
Author(s) -
Shulman Jay D.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.2004.00157.x
Subject(s) - medicine , herpes labialis , serology , population , national health and nutrition examination survey , herpes simplex virus , pediatrics , demography , virus , immunology , environmental health , antibody , sociology
– Objective: This study reports data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, 1988–1994 (NHANES III). Methods: NHANES III was a complex, multistage sample of 33 994 civilian, non‐institutional individuals from 19 528 households. Dentist examiners were trained to recognize, classify oral mucosal lesions to include recurrent herpes labialis (RHL). Subjects ≥8 years of age were asked if they had cold sores in the past year and serologic tests for herpes virus type 1 (HSV‐1) and type 2 (HSV‐2) were performed on blood of youth >12 years of age. Results: Examinations were performed on 10 032 individuals 2–17 years of age. Overall point prevalence was 1.42% (0.69–2.15); annual prevalence in individuals 8–17 years of age was 14.77% (12.74–16.80); and serologic prevalence of HSV‐1 in youth 12–17 years of age was 43.18% (38.88–47.48). When the data were subset to youth 12–17, annual prevalence for seropositives was 24.13% (20.44–27.82) compared with 16.87 (14.16–19.57) for all subjects. Approximately 25% of the seropositive youth had at least one recurrence in the past year. Conclusion: As RHL is a recurrent infection, prevalence in a population will be related to the proportion of the population that has been infected with herpes simplex virus. When lesion‐specific prevalences are cited in the literature, they should be stratified by covariates known to be associated with them. Future studies should examine RHL prevalence in infected individuals.