IFNA2 and infection: So far, clinical trials evaluating the treatment of oral and genital HSV infections with the clinically approved human IFNα2 could already reveal an antiviral efficacy of exogenous type I IFN leading to decreased symptom duration and severity as well as a reduction of recurrence incidence, but without reaching complete prevention of infection and latency (Jones et al., 1976; Kuhls et al., 1986; Ho, 1990; Cardamakis et al., 1998).