Background: Infection by type 1 Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1) is the most frequent viral infection in human population being able to cause injuries in oral mucosa, skin, cornea, and even the central nervous system causing encephalitis. After mucosal infection, HSV-1 establishes a lifespan latent infection in trigeminal ganglia where it occasionally reactivates infecting primary sites again. It is little known about cell and molecular events responsible for infection reactivation and immune response in human ganglia. Objective: To standardize the obtaining and processing of human trigeminal ganglia to detect specific HSV antigen, DNA and RNA. Methods: After approval of the study by the Universidad Nacional IRB, 32 trigeminal ganglia were obtained from 16 cadavers from the Colombian Forensic Medicine Institute. Results: Using PCR technique to detect viral DNA, it was found that 56.3 % of ganglia (9/16) amplified specific fragment and five out of ten with suitable quality RNA were positive for latency associated transcript. Conclusion: Some trigeminal ganglia did not show evidence of infection and some had different HSV-1 infection status (active or latent) with inflammatory cells infiltrate in almost all samples. This is the first work that detects simultaneously genome, proteins and LAT of HSV-1 in human trigeminal ganglia, leading to explore findings about the latency and reactivation process.