BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Ophthalmol.
Sec. Inflammatory Eye Diseases
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fopht.2025.1641991
This article is part of the Research TopicHerpesviruses: Pathogenesis and Host InteractionsView all 8 articles
Detection of Human Herpesvirus 7 in Conjunctival Samples Collected from Individuals Recovering from Conjunctivitis
Provisionally accepted
Andrew Hartwick1*
Christina Morettin2Jennifer Harthan2
Meredith Whiteside3Ellen Shorter4Spencer Johnson5Mary Migneco6Christian Olson7Julia Huecker8Tammy Than9Mae Gordon8- 1The Ohio State University College of Optometry, Columbus, United States
- 2Illinois College of Optometry, Chicago, United States
- 3University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
- 4Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, Chicago, United States
- 5Rocky Mountain University College of Optometry, Provo, UT, United States
- 6Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, United States
- 7Fort Sam Houston Military and Family Readiness Center, Joint Base San Antonio Fort Sam Houston, United States
- 8Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, United States
- 9Carl Vinson Veterans' Administration Medical Center, Dublin, United States
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Purpose: Although it is often reported that adenovirus is the most common etiology for infectious conjunctivitis, a recent multi-center clinical study found that adenovirus was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction in only 16% of cases presenting with acute conjunctivitis. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that a member of Herpesviridae could be the underlying etiology in some non-adenoviral cases of conjunctivitis.Methods: Molecular assays for Herpes Simplex 1 and 2 (HSV-1, HSV-2) and Human Herpesvirus 6A, 6B and 7 (HHV-6A, HHV-6B, HHV-7) were performed on conjunctival samples collected from 18 individuals with acute conjunctivitis and during their recovery in follow-up visits that spanned up to 3 weeks. All samples, obtained from individuals enrolled in a clinical trial evaluating a conjunctivitis treatment, were from eyes that had previously tested negative for adenovirus using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques.In total, 160 PCR assays were performed on 40 conjunctival samples. Four of these samples, obtained from four different individuals, tested positive for HHV-7. None of the samples tested positive for HSV-1, HSV-2, HHV-6A or HHV-6B.This data provides further evidence that Human Herpesvirus 7 can be present in the eye, as HHV-7 was detected in a subset of conjunctival samples obtained from individuals recovering from non-adenoviral conjunctivitis. Clinicians should consider non-adenoviral etiologies when managing conjunctivitis that presents as classic 'pink eye'.
Keywords: Conjunctivitis, herpes, HHV-7, virus, Adenoviral
Received: 05 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hartwick, Morettin, Harthan, Whiteside, Shorter, Johnson, Migneco, Olson, Huecker, Than and Gordon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Andrew Hartwick, The Ohio State University College of Optometry, Columbus, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.