Results of morphological examination of brain herpetic lesions in 29 children are presented. There were 5 observations of necrotic meningo-encephalitis, among children with generalized intrauterine herpes, less severe changes were found in other cases. 14 children suffered from acute necrotic meningo-encephalitis developed after birth. Changes typical for herpes are described in neural, glial and ependymal cells; the type of response in different forms of lesions is shown. The correlation between the gangliosides content in the brain tissue and the surviving neural cells and a specific increase of ganglioside GD1b fraction in brain tissue were demonstrated by biochemical and morphological studies.