[Latent herpesvirus hominis type 1 infection in the mother and passive acquired immunity in the newborn infant].

The study aimed at determining the frequency of latent herpes virus hominis type 1 infection in healthy parturients. The infection can be detected only by the presence of anti herpes virus hominis type 1 antibodies in their blood. To this end 102 blood samples of both parturients and the umbilical cord were concurrently analysed by the complement fixation test. The mean geometrical antibody titer value in mothers was 13.968. More than 90% of the parturients examined had anti HVH type 1 antibodies in their blood. Out of 102 pairs (mother--umbilical cord) of blood samples, in 34 (33.34%) the observed anti HVH type 1 antibody titer was the same in the parturients' blood and in the umbilical cord blood, while in 62 samples (60.78%) the titer of these antibodies was twice as high in the umbilical cord blood than in the parturients. It appears that this transplacental transfer of anti HVH type 1 antibodies plays a significant role in the protection of the newborn against generalized HVH infection, although this kind of protection is limited in its duration and not so efficacious as cell-induced immunity.