Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) is a virus, which causes a painful skin/mucosal blistering disorder that can involve numbers areas including genitalia, lips, esophagus, and skin. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) antibodies for HSV-1 and HSV-2 are available for testing in paraffin embedded tissue. In general, HSV-1 infections are more common above the diaphragm, and HSV-2 are more common below the diagram. While the availability of HSV-1 specific and HSV-2 specific antibodies for testing might suggest they are highly specific. In the author’s experience, there is a lot of cross reactivity between the HSV-1 and HSV-2 antibodies, and one should not consider positivity as definitively specific.
Photomicrographs
![HS](https://www.pathmd.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HSV-in-ACH-autopsy-brain-immuno-1024x682.jpg)
![HSV - Brain](https://www.pathmd.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HSV-in-ACH-autopsy-brain-1-1024x682.jpg)
![HSV Esophagitis](https://www.pathmd.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/10566-HSV-HP1-1024x682.jpg)
![HSV - Esophagitis](https://www.pathmd.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/HSV_Esoph_HSV2_1-1024x682.jpg)