HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS AS THE CAUSE OF FULMINATING VISCERAL DISEASE AND HEPATITIS IN INFANCY<subtitle>Report of Eight Cases and Isolation of the Virus in One Case</subtitle>

THE DISEASES caused by the virus of herpes simplex in man are generally thought of as benign surface infections limited to the skin and mucous membranes. In the rare instances in which the virus invades the central nervous system, the spread is believed to take place along axonal pathways.¹Although primary herpetic stomatitis of infants is commonly associated with rather severe systemic symptoms, and the development of Kaposi's herpetiform eruption would seem to depend on hematogenous spread of the virus,²visceral lesions definitely attributable to the dissemination of herpes virus by the blood stream have not been recorded heretofore.³On morphologic grounds, however, this virus has occasionally been suspected as the causative agent for certain obscure lesions of internal organs.⁴In 1935, Hass⁵described the unique case of a premature infant showing extensive necrosis of the liver and adrenals which, because of the presence of