Moreover, insofar as the Cleveland case was concerned, its presentation in a respected medical journal did lend the required air of credibility.
Another link between changes in the immune system, a cofactor (psychological stress), and the recurrence of disease (in this case, genital herpes) was established in 1985 at the University of California at San Francisco, where health psychologist Margaret Kemeny evaluated 40 persons with genital herpes over a six-month period. She analyzed several variables, including measures of stressful life events (daily hassles, anticipated stress), life goals, coping measures, social support, and changing health habits. Blood samples were drawn from the subjects each month so that the investigators could look at possible stress-induced immunological changes.
The laboratory diagnosis can help to determine culture of the virus, type of the virus, direct fluorescent antibody, chain reaction, skin biopsy, and other immunological methods which helps to determine anti-HSV antibody. Serological tests are also used for HVS-1 detection, but because of their high costs, they are not popular in medical practice.
According to the preliminary findings, subjects with the highest levels of stress suffered the highest rates of herpes recurrence and had changes in their immune systems, notably in the number of helper T-cells in th ...