No association between maternal recurrent genital herpes in pregnancy and higher risk for congenital abnormalities

OBJECTIVE: To study the possible links between recurrent symptomatic genital herpes during pregnancy and risk for congenital abnormalities (CAs). METHOD: The occurrence of prospectively and medically-recorded recurrent genital herpes during pregnancy in the mothers of cases with different congenital abnormalities and in the mothers of matched controls without CAs was compared in the population-based large data set of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance System of Congenital Abnormalities. RESULTS: Of 22,843 cases with CAs, 59 (0.26%) were born to mothers with recurrent symptomatic genital herpes, while of 38,151 control newborns without CAs, 86 (0.23%) were born to mothers with recurrent genital herpes during the study pregnancy (adjusted OR: 1.1, 95% CI: 0.8-1.6). Pregnant women with clinically recognised recurrent genital herpes in the first trimester of pregnancy are not linked with a higher risk for any CAs. CONCLUSION: Recurrent genital herpes during pregnancy does not associate with a higher risk of CAs.