Response to: ‘Herpes simplex virus infection among neonates suspected of invasive bacterial infection: a population-based cohort study’ by Dungu et al

Abstract

Our recent prospective UK-wide British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) cohort study findings echo the increase in incidence of neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) described by Dungu et al. 1 We found that the incidence of neonatal HSV infection has tripled over the last three decades in the UK from 1.65/100 000 in 1986–19912 to a minimum of 6/100 000 infants between August 2019 and February 2022.3 General consensus among the UK Paediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship (UK-PAS) network is in agreement with the above authors that not all unwell infants …