Prevalence Herpes Labialis among South Indian Population: an Institutional Study

Herpes labialis is the most commonly occurring infection in the orofacial region in the form of cold sores and fever blisters. Most of the patients often have episodes of relapse. Herpes labialis is often characterised by a common set of symptoms which includes rashes over the lips areas, erythematous blisters and burning pain. Herpes labialis is caused by herpes simplex-1 virus while rarely caused by herpes simplex 2 virus. The diagnosis of herpes labialis is often limited to taking patients history and performing physical examinations. A primary infection is often characterised by small clusters of blisters or ulcers (2mm to 10mm) in front of the lip, tongue, mouth characterised by presence of fever. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of herpes labialis and its association with age among the patients reporting to a private institutional set up in Chennai. The study was conducted among 44,000 patients attending the outpatient department of a private institution in chennai during a time period of 6 months between June 2019 to December 2019. The patient records were assessed and tabulated in MS-Excel. The data was analysed by SPSS software and the results were interpreted. The prevalence of herpes labialis was 0.14% among the study population attending the outpatient department of a private institution. Male predilection was observed. Within the limitations of our current study, it is concluded that there is a reduced prevalence of herpes labialis in the study population.