Oral herpesvirus infection in nursery personnel: infection control policy

A survey of 161 neonatal referral centers in the United States revealed that 83% exclude personnel with overt oral herpes simplex virus (HSV) lesions from direct patient care. Twenty-seven percent of hospitals exclude infected personnel from all hospital work. The high incidence of overt HSV lesions and the excretion of HSV among asymptomatic hospital personnel associated with an extremely low incidence of recognized neonatal HSV infection (especially type 1 HSV), suggest that the current policy of excluding such personnel from patient care should be reexamined.