Shedding of herpes simplex virus type 1 into saliva in patients with orofacial fracture.

Shedding of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) into saliva was studied in 83 patients with orofacial fractures. Infectious virus was isolated from 14 of 83 patients (16.8%) with no detectable herpetic lesion during hospitalization. Of the 83 patients, 44 (53%) had HSV-1 specific antibody. Virus shedding into saliva was observed only in the patients with antibody to HSV-1; thus, the frequency of virus shedding patients among those with antibody was 31% (14 of 44 patients). The frequency was obviously higher than that of a healthy population. The period of HSV-1 shedding had a mean of 3.7 days with range of 1 to 8 days, which is also significantly longer than that of a healthy population. These results strongly suggest that both treatment and operation lead effectively to reactivation of latently infected HSV-1.