Dragan22

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Herpes simplex questions

Hi Dragan, My apologies for taking so long to respond to you - the real world is taking over and reducing the time I have to spend on Wikipedia!! Please to not consider me an "expert" on the herpes page - rather someone that works in the field that is learning the ropes - and of course, I've just being trying to clean up the article, anyone is free to work on it!!! :o)

Thank you for pointing out areas that need better citations, this is something I (or any other editor) need to tackle when improving the herpes simplex article towards FA standard. The seroconversion and autoinoculation data are pretty old news so I will try and hunt around for some old articles that back up those statements, or update the info according to any recent advances I find! As for the short article you pointed me towards, that is an unusual story! It is generally thought that once you develop antibodies against herpes simplex, the virus will not be able to establish a new infection somewhere else on your body. However, I would assume the gentleman in question is rather elderly (he has been living with HSV-1 for over 60 years!), which would bring in the added complication of reduced immune function associated with the elderly that may allow a latent virus to reactivate/reinfect - I have no idea if this is what happened but it's just a thought, and there is no data in that particular letter to prove the lesion was from the same virus! As for a reactivation of virus in one individual causing a reactivation in another, my own opinion is to think this is unlikely - it is generally considered that the immune system of an individual controls the reactivation of their own virus so different people are likely to have triggers that differ in timing depending on what is reducing their immune control at any given time - but again, just IMO - I'm no expert and control mechanisms of viral latency for HSV are still being investigated!!

Best wishes, ~ Ciar ~ _{(Talk to me!)} 21:30, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

I also responded to your question on ~ Ciar ~'s talk page. pikipiki (talk) 10:57, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

I reread your question to Ciar and the paper you cited. It is an unusual case and may be due to a weakened immune system in an older person. Or, it may be the ganglion is connected to that area as well. Lesions do not have to reoccur in the exact same square millimeter. Regarding your other question, A person can be re-infected with a different strain of the same type. For example a person with oral HSV-1 kissing a person with a different strain of HSV-1 can become co-infected with the other (exogenous)strain of HSV-1, but only in the site where the primary infection took place. This is reinfection and not necessarily a "trigger". Auto-inoculation as stated elsewhere is usually a function of primary infection. If you have any other questions or need references feel free to ask on my talk page. I'm currently trying to polish the citations on the herpes page. pikipiki (talk) 09:07, 22 August 2008 (UTC)