ABSTRACT
Investigations reported between 1920 and the early 1960s focused on the biologic manifestations of HSV infections and the natural history of human disease, as reviewed [9-12]. In the early 1930s, Andrews and Carmichael identi ed H5 neutralizing antibodies in the sera of previously infected adults [13]. Subsequently, some of these individuals developed recurrent labial lesions, albeit less severe than those associated with the initial episode. is observation de nes a unique biologic property of HSV, namely its ability to recur in the presence of humoral immunity, a characteristic known as reactivation of latent infection. By the late 1930s, infants with severe stomatitis, who shed a virus thought to be HSV, subsequently developed neutralizing antibodies during the convalescent period [14,15]. Later in life, some of these children developed recurrent lesions of the lip, as had been reported for adults.
