Alpha herpes virus infections in a group of patients clinically suspected of central nervous system infections in Sri Lanka. A brief laboratory report

Alpha herpes viruses cause central nervous system (CNS) infections during primary infection or following reactivation. Laboratory data on CSF samples received by the Virology Laboratory, Teaching Hospital, Kandy from March, 2017 to March, 2019 from patients clinically suspected of having infections of the central nervous system (CNS) were retrospectively analyzed to determine positivity rate of human herpes simplex  virus (HSV) and varicella zoster virus (VZV) infections. Data from 352 patients was analyzed.  Eight patients (2.3%) were positive for VZV and three patients (0.8%) were positive for HSV. None of the 8 patients who were HVZ DNA positive had a history of chickenpox. Two of these 8 patients did not have the typical chickenpox rash during their illness. HVZ IgG data was not available to determine whether their illness was primary or secondary.