Electron microscopy of herpes simplex hepatitis with hepatocyte pulmonary embolization in kwashiorkor.

We report a case of herpes simplex hepatitis in a child with edematous malnutrition. Electron microscopy showed virus in parenchymal cells, with pulmonary embolization of necrotic, infected hepatic cell fragments. Systemic dissemination of herpes simplex may be related both to the profound immunoincompetence associated with kwashiorkor and to a reduction in the circulating and fixed polyanions that normally inhibit viral attachment to cells.