Material Collection from Suspected Herpetic Lesions

Principle:

Herpesvirus is best recovered from the base of active lesions in the vesicular stage. The older the lesion, the less likely it will yield viable virus.

Method:

1. Open the vesicles with a small gauge needle or Dacron- tipped swab.
2. Rub the base of the lesion vigorously with a small cotton-tipped or Dacron-tipped swab to recover infected cells.
3. Place the swab into viral transport medium and refrigerate until inoculated to culture media. Specimens in media may be stored at -70⁰C for extended periods without loss of viral yield.
4. If large vesicles are present, material for culture may be aspirated directly by needle and syringe.
5. Material from another lesion can be applied directly to a glass slide for a Tzanck preparation (cytology) with Wright- Giemsa stain for detection of multinucleated giant cells, or for fluorescent antibody stain for detection of viral antigens.