Genital Herpes Simplex During Pregnancy

Genital herpes simplex during pregnancy

Most mothers of infants who acquire neonatal herpes lack histories of clinically evident genital herpes. Many neonatal infections result from asymptomatic cervical shedding of virus after a primary episode of genital HSV in the third trimester. The risk for transmission to the neonate from an infected mother is high (30%-50%) among women who acquire genital herpes near the time of delivery and is low (less than 1%) among women with histories of recurrent herpes at term or who acquire genital HSV during the first half of pregnancy. However, because recurrent genital herpes is much more common than initial HSV infection during pregnancy, the proportion of neonatal HSV infections acquired from mothers with recurrent herpes remains high. Prevention of neonatal herpes depends both on preventing acquisition of genital HSV infection during late pregnancy and avoiding exposure of the infant to herpetic lesions during delivery.