Herpetic Folliculitis

Background: Although herpetic skin infection is very common, herpetic folliculitis is infrequently reported in the literature. It has varied presentations, some of which are clinically atypical requiring histopathological confirmation of follicular involvement. Objective: We describe an otherwise healthy young adult male with extensive herpetic sycosis of the beard area, which is a variant of herpetic folliculitis. The diagnosis was confirmed by typical herpetic cytopathic changes in Tzanck smear and positive viral culture for HSV-1. Method: This article includes a case report and a literature review of herpetic (simplex and varicella/zoster) folliculitis. Conclusions: More cases of herpetic folliculitis should be reported to improve our understanding of this disease entity. Physicians should consider herpetic or other viral etiology in patients with folliculitis even if they were healthy, especially if they show resistance to antibacterial and antifungal therapy.