Genital herpes is the fourth most common sexually transmitted disease in the UK with over 18 000 new cases reported from genitourinary medicine clinics in 2002. Clinical diagnosis is neither sensitive nor specific and virus isolation is slow and decreasingly sensitive as the lesions age. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) increases herpes simplex virus (HSV) detection rates and newer real time PCR assays are fast, safe, and fully automated. Simultaneous detection and …