ABSTRACT

The contributions within this volume clearly show the increasing burden of disease for which HSV-1 and HSV-2 have been identified as responsible pathogens. These two viruses are of concern to almost every medical specialty, and hopefully, the work of the authors presented herein will aid the clinicians to diagnose and to treat patients that they previously might not have recognized as suffering from HSV. Probably, additional diseases of hitherto unknown etiology will be linked to HSV in the future. But why do these viruses, which almost may be considered as a normal flora in most subjects, play such a growing role for human health?