Abstract: Objective To detect and quantitate genital herpesvirus DNA in clinical specimens samples from 100 cases of genital herpes.Methods Using PCR and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a standard curve of DNA copies of HSV as the quantitative contrast.Results Ninety three cases were HSV positive and 7 cases negative among 100 samples.There were 58 cases of HSV-2(62.4%) and 35 cases of HSV-1(37.6%) among 93 positive cases.The results of quantitation showed the number of DNA plasmids ranged from 115 to 1.1×10⁵/250μ L of specimen among total 93 positive samples and the mean was 7.1×10⁴/250μ L.The number of HSV DNA plasmids ranged from 136 to 1.1×10⁵ copies per 250μ L,and the mean was 7.6×10⁴ among 58 positive samples of HSV-2;the number of HSV DNA plasmids ranged from 115 to 9.4×10⁴ per 250μ L,and the mean was 6.3×10⁴ among 35 positive samples of HSV-1.Meanwhile 10μ L of extracted and dissolved DNA randomly taken from 8 out of 58 cases of HSV-2 and 35 cases of HSV-1,respectively,were tested,the results indicated the number of HSV-2 DNA plasmids ranged from 35 copies to 2.7×10⁴ and the mean was 1.8×10⁴ and the number of HSV-1 DNA ranged from 29 to 2.5×10⁴ and the mean was 1.6×10⁴.In 7 negative cases,the results of quantitation were zero.Conclusions The sensitivity of ELISA quantitation (93%) equals to that of Southern blot,and the sensitivity of PCR for diagnosis is 91%,and the PCR for typing is 88%.

Key words: HSV DNA quantitation, PCR, ELISA, Southern blot