Abstract: Objective To study the characteristics of shedding herpes simplex virus (HSV) in patients with subclinical genital herpes, and provide basis for clinical therapy. Methods A total of 142 patients with subclinical genital herpes were obtained in our hospital from June 2014 to June 2016. The fluorescent quantitation polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the HSV-DNA, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was applied to check the type of serum IgG. The effects of age, gender, antibody types, disease courses and occurrence frequency on the positive rate of HSV DNA shedding were analyzed. Results The positive rate of HSV-DNA in 142 patients was 49.3%, and females showed significantly higher HSV shedding rate than males (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in HSV shedding rate between patients with serum HSV-Ⅰ IgG++HSV-Ⅱ IgG+ and patients with HSV-Ⅱ IgG+ alone, while both of which showed higher HSV shedding rate than those of patients with HSV- Ⅰ IgG + alone. Patients with short infection period (≤6 years) showed significantly higher HSV shedding rate than patients with longer infection period (>6 years). HSV shedding rate in patients with high frequent occurrence was found to be significantly higher than that in patients with low frequent occurrence (P < 0.05). In patients who showed short infection period (≤6 years), the HSV shedding rate was found significantly higher in frequent patients (recurrence ≥ 6 times/year) than that in few occurrence patients (recurrence < 6 times/year). There was no significant difference in HSV shedding rate in patients with recurrent occurrence when they went through more than 6 years’ HSV infection (P > 0.05). More patients with positive HSV- Ⅱ IgG were found in female than that in male (P < 0.05). Conclusion In patients with subclinical genital herpes, HSV shedding rate is closely related to gender, serum antibody type, disease course and recurrent occurrence.

Key words: herpes genitalis, simplexvirus, herpesvirus 1, human, herpesvirus 2, human, shedding of virus, antibodies