Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To determine the epidemiology including the incidence and prevalence of ocular herpes simplex infection in the Northern California through a population-based study. Methods: The medical records of patients in two target communities with ocular herpes simplex infection were retrospectively reviewed, utilizing the outpatients visit diagnosis coding for the target period from July 1, 1998 to June 30, 1999. The incidence including age-stratified rates was calculated using a dynamic population model. The12-month period prevalence rate was calculated using the mid-period population. Results: The mid-period population was 240,419. Of the 101 patients coded as ocular herpes, there were 63 cases of ocular herpes simplex infection, 36 new cases and 27 recurrent cases. Of the incident cases, there were 19 women and 17 men. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 55.58 years (range:1 –99) The new cases presented with dermal-blepharitis 24%, conjunctivitis 16%, epithelial keratitis 78%, stromal keratitis 19%, and iritis 13%. No case of retinitis was seen.(Some patients had multiple structures affected, so these added up to more than 100%.) Nine cases (25%) had recurrent within the follow-up period. The highest incidence of new cases presented in an age group of 85 or higher, with an incidence of 122.24 new cases per 100,000 person-years. The overall incidence was 15.01 cases per 100,000 person-years. Conclusions: The overall incidence of new cases of initial ocular herpes simplex infection in our study was 15.01 per 100,000 person-years, which was 2 times higher than the previous report from Rochester, Minnesota in 1950 to 1982. These cases with initial ocular infection had a recurrent rate of 25 % in a period of 3 years.
Keywords: herpes simplex virus • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: pre • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: nat