Author Contributions
Academic Editor: Katie Kramer, CEO/Principal The Bridging Group, LLC Oakland, CA.
Checked for plagiarism: Yes
Review by: Single-blind
Copyright © 2015 Stefano Di Bella, et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Competing interests
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation:
Case Report
A 43 year-old woman seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) complained of discomfort and burning pain in her perineal region. Clinical examination revealed multiple painful superficial ulcers. Serological tests for syphilis and swabs for Haemophilusducreyi were negative. CD4 cell count was 78 per cubic millimeter. A polymerase-chain-reaction assay performed on lesion swabs resulted positive for herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). Serology for herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2 were both positive (IgG) suggesting recurrent HSV-2 infection. The patient underwent treatment with oral acyclovir 400 mg 5 times per day for 14 days with complete healing of the lesions and pain relief. HSV-2 infection both increases the risk of HIV acquisition and transmission, moreover genital herpes reactivates frequently in people infected with HIV 1. The persistence of herpes simplex ulcers for more than one month is an AIDS defining condition 2.
Figure 1. HIV-1 seropositive African woman