SEROPREVALENCE OF HSV-2 IN HUNGARY AND COMPARISON OF THE HSV-2 PREVALENCE OF PREGNANT AND INFERTILE WOMEN* ANDREA HETTMANN,BORBÁLA GERLE,ERZSÉBET BARCSAY, CSENGE CSISZÁR and MÁRIA TAKÁCS** Division of Virology, National Center for Epidemiology, Gyáli út 2–6, H-1097 Budapest, Hungary (Received: 10 September 2008; accepted: 16 September 2008) Herpes simplex virus type 2 infection is a quite common but frequently asymptomatic, therefore undiagnosed condition. Genital HSV-2 infection may cause neonatal herpes, enhances HIV transmission and may play a role in infertility. To eval- uate the prevalence of HSV-2 in Hungary we tested 2500 serum samples for the pres- ence of anti-HSV-2 IgG by ELISA method. According to our results Hungary belongs to the low-infected countries, the HSV-2 seroprevalence grows with age and is signifi- cantly higher among women than in men. We also examined the serostatus of 512 pregnant women and 539 women attending infertility clinics. Results show that the HSV-2 prevalence is significantly higher among women attending infertility clinics and the seropositivity of pregnant women is similar to that of the general Hungarian women population with the same age. Keywords: Herpesvirus type 2, seroprevalence, pregnant, infertile women Introduction Genital Herpes simplex virus infection is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. This infection is mostly caused by Herpes sim- plex virus type 2 (HSV-2), while HSV-1 is normally associated with orofacial in- fections, but either type can infect a person anywhere on the skin. 1217-8950/$20.00 © 2008 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest Acta Microbiologica et Immunologica Hungarica, 55 (4), pp. 429–436 (2008) DOI: 10.1556/AMicr.55.2008.4.7 * This paper was written to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary ** Corresponding author; E-mail: takacs.maria@oek.antsz.hu