The molecular epidemiology of herpes simplex viruses

For epidemiologic, and occasionally legal, reasons, it is sometimes necessary to know definitively which of the myriad strains of herpes simplex virus is responsible for a particular infection. A straightforward enzymatic method, using restriction endonucleases originally devised for viral DNA mapping, can unambiguously distinguish one strain from another even though the difference in their DNAs may be only a single base pair.