We investigated the cost-effectiveness of strategies for screening pregnant women for herpes simplex virus (HSV) genital infection. The cost of performing tests for HSV-1 antibody and for HSV-2 antibody on each serum was likely to average approximately £10 per sample and the total cost of screening 37,500 pregnancies in Manchester would be between £0.4 and £0.5 million per year. This estimated cost might prevent the development of neonatal herpes due to a primary HSV infection. However, initial HSV-2 infection is also associated with neonatal herpes and therefore the above cost-estimates might be a gross underestimate.
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