Herpes simplex

Symptoms:

• skin rash or lesion with itching
• skin rash or lesion with a burning or tingling sensation before other symptoms develop
• mouth sores
• genital lesions (male)
• genital lesions (female)
• blisters
  • anywhere on the skin
  • most frequent on the mouth, lips, conjunctiva and cornea of the eye, and the genitalia
  • smaller blisters merge to form a larger blister
  • yellow crusts form on blisters at the beginning of healing (7 to 10 days)

• fever blisters
• mild fever
• enlargement of lymph nodes in the neck or groin

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease:

• vaginal discharge
• throat, sore
• memory loss

Signs and tests:

Physical findings of blisters may be sufficient to diagnose herpes simplex.

The following tests may (occasionally) be performed:

• viral culture of lesion
• oropharynx lesion biopsy
• culture from endocervix
• Tzanck test