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Herpes Often Spread Unknowingly by Young Women: Presented at ICAAC/ISDA By Charlene Laino WASHINGTON, DC -- November 1, 2008 -- Young women who are unaware that they have the virus that causes genital herpes could be unknowingly fuelling the herpes epidemic, according to new research presented here at the 48th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 46th Annual Meeting.. "[These young women are] infectious and don't know it," explained Kenneth Fife, MD, PhD, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, speaking here at a poster presentation on October 27. Although they have no symptoms of the disease and have not been tested, many women are actively shedding herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in their genital tracts, Dr. Fife warned. The women in this trial entered a separate study when they were aged 14 to 18, in which they were followed for 4 to 6 years. Only 3 of the women had a history of clinically diagnosed genital herpes at the time of the study. Seventeen of 67 (25.4%) of the women for whom previous sera were available seroconverted from HSV-2 negative to positive over the course of the study. Factors associated with a positive test in this population included age at first test (odds ratio [OR] 1.36, P = .007), years since sexual debut (OR 1.17, P = .043), and age number of lifetime partners (OR 1.09, P = .25). Among these subjects with incident HSV-2 infection there was no significant association with behavioural factors such as number of unprotected sexual contacts between the 2 tests, compared to those who did not seroconvert. The greatest concern, Dr. Fife noted, was that 68.4% of the 19 women for whom genital swabs were available were actively shedding the virus. Had these women not been studied, they might never have been tested, he added. Most of the women had no symptoms -- not even nonspecific symptoms like genital pain or vaginal discharge. Funding for this study was provided by the US National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline. [Presentation title: Behavioral Factors and Symptoms Associated With HSV 2 Infection in Young Adult Women. Abstract V-3536] E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version