Properties of herpesviruses Enveloped double stranded DNA viruses. Genome consisits of long and short fragments which may be orientated in either direction, giving a total of 4 isomers
Live difficult diagnosis clinical picture, skin biopsy, corneal impression(antibodies only appear very late) Dead- brain sent to Onderstepoort Negri bodies in cytoplasm of brain cells; immunofluorescence virus isolation