OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of HSV-1 and HSV-2 antibodies in HIV infected women and the association between recurrent genital ulcerations and HIV disease progression in HSV-2 positive women. METHODS The presence of HSV antibodies was tested in 276 of the 487 women participating in a European cohort study of HIV infected women. Prevalence rate ratios described the...

Mounting evidence indicates that genital HSV-2 infection may increase susceptibility to HIV infection and that co-infection may increase infectiousness. Accordingly, antiviral treatment of people with HSV-2 may mitigate the incidence of HIV in populations where both pathogens occur. To better understand the epidemiological synergy between HIV and HSV-2, we formulate a deterministic compartmenta...

Background: The objectives of this study were to assess the role of HSV-2 status, first, on HIV acquisition by young men and secondly, on the protective effect of male circumcision on HIV acquisition. Methods: We used data collected during a male circumcision trial conducted in Orange Farm (South Africa). We estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR) using survival analysis and background ...

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) are neurotropic viruses and common human pathogens causing a major public health problem such as genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease also correlated to increased transmission and replication of the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1). Therefore, compounds capable of blocking HIV-1, HSV-1 and HSV-2 transmission represent c...

BACKGROUND We investigated whether serotesting sexual partners of pregnant women for herpes simplex virus (HSV) improves adherence to safer-sex practices. METHODS A total of 287 HSV-2-seronegative pregnant women were recruited, and their partners were invited for HSV serologic testing. On the basis of test results, women were placed into 4 groups: those at risk for HSV-2 infection, those at r...

Chlamydia trachomatis and Herpes Simplex Virus-2 (HSV-2) genital tract co-infections have been reported in humans and studied in vitro but the clinical consequences are unknown. Limited epidemiologic evidence suggests that these co-infections could be more severe than single infections of either pathogen, but the host-pathogen interactions during co-infection remain uncharacterized. To determin...

BACKGROUND The association between initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and possible herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) shedding and genital ulcer disease (GUD) has not been evaluated. METHODS GUD and vaginal HSV-2 shedding were evaluated among women coinfected with HIV and HSV-2 (n = 440 for GUD and n = 96 for HSV-2 shedding) who began ...

OBJECTIVES To determine the proportion of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV type 2 (HSV-2) in first episodes of genital herpes. To evaluate the use of HSV specific serology for classifying first episodes of genital herpes and for defining HSV serostatus in the patients' sexual partners. METHODS 108 consecutive patients with first episodes of genital herpes seen at three STD clinics ...

Intravaginal inoculation of mice with an attenuated strain of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) resulted in vigorous HSV-specific immune responses that protected against subsequent challenge with fully virulent HSV-2 strains. Even in the presence of high titers of HSV-specific Ab, T cell-dependent mechanisms were required for protection of the vaginal mucosae of HSV-immune mice and could be d...