Pathogenesis and life cycle of herpes simplex virus infection-stages of primary, latency and recurrence

Aims and objectives(1) To understand the molecular level mechanism involved in immune evasion leading to primary HSV infection. (2) To explain the neuronal latency of herpes simplex virus. (3) To explain the reason for the specificity in the sites of primary and recurrent HSV lesions.MethodsA systematic review was done to understand the molecular level mechanism involved in primary, latency and recurrent herpes simplex infections. We prepared this article by compiling the data from various textbooks, literatures and PubMed, Embase, and EBSCOhost databases.Results and conclusionHerpes simplex virus is a highly contagious human pathogen that has widespread infections in the oro-facial region which is associated with HSV-1. This single review article can provide the entire knowledge about the pathogenesis, its interesting property of latency and clinical features of HSV infection under one tree. Thus, this article enlightens the dental professionals with an adequate knowledge about the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations and specific sites of primary and recurrent lesions which will highly help them in timely diagnosis, management and also for controlling the spread of infection.