Epidemiology of Genital Herpes in Pittsburgh: Serologic, Sexual, and Racial Correlates of Apparent and Inapparent Herpes Simplex Infections

Abstract

Women attending family planning clinics in western Pennsylvania were enrolled into a prospective epidemiologic study of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. Detection of antibodies to HSV-1 and HSV-2 was based on an immunodot assay using type-specific glycoproteins gG-1 and gG-2. Serologic and historical data at enrollment were analyzed for 4527 subjects; the seroprevalence of HSV-2 was 21.6%. By multivariate analysis, HSV-2 infection as determined by seroprevalence was significantly and independently associated with age, years of sexual activity, race, one or more episodes of other genital infections, lower annual family income, and multiple sexual partners. The presence of antibody to HSV-1 was associated with a lower frequency of antibody to HSV-2, suggesting that developed immunity to HSV-1 protected against HSV-2 infection. Of 926 participants who had antibody to HSV-2, only 117 (12.6%) reported a history of genital herpes. Hence the vast majority of HSV-2 infections were inapparent. Although seroprevalence of HSV-2 was higher among black (35.4%) than white (18.5%) women, black women appeared to have significantly less symptomatic genital herpes than white women (7.7% vs. 14.7%, P less than .01).

Association between Herpes Simplex virus type 2 (HSV 2) and bad obstetric outcomes

“…In addition, bivariate analysis indicated no significant difference in seroprevalence between the present study and that reported recently for Kirkuk (X 2 =2.36, p>0.05); present study and mean rate of seroprevalence with the mean of previously reported Iraqi studies (X 2 =1.45, p>0.05); and present versus global studies (X 2 =0.025, p>0.05). HSV-2 IgG Seropositivity in the present study was found to be not significantly associated with history of previous abortion (X 2 =0.59, P=NS), a finding not agreed with that reported by others [15,55,57]. However, HSV-2 IgG seroprevalence was more (in women with repeated abortion of ≥ 3, indication that seroprevalence rate increased with increased number of abortion, a phenomenon could be related to the virulence of the latent virus that may be affected by treatment used for abortion.…”

“…There was a significant variation (X 2 =30.2, P=0.000) in HSV 2 IgG seroprevalence between age groups. These findings are comparable to studies reported for other geographical areas [31,36,41,46,52,[54][55][56]. The HSV-2 IgM seroprevalence was significantly higher (X 2 =4.17, p=0.044) in women with BOH of 14-19 years of age, OR confirmed such association.…”

“…For example, studies performed in Iraq (11.1-60.6%), Saudi Arabia (6.5-27.1%), and Turkey (4.4%-63.1%), demonstrated a wide range of seroprevalence [15,19]. These variations may be attributed to various sexual behavior, number of previous pregnancies, duration of sexual activity, residence, education, occupation and socioeconomic status, sample size, sampling method, race, and sexual behavior of the studied population [41,42,52,[54][55][56]. Comparison of the HSV-2 seroprevalence in the present study with the mean of that reported for Iraq and global (Tabl.…”

Genital Herpes: Management Issues for the Next Century

“…Although most GH infections are caused by HSV-2, an increasing number of cases are due to HSV-1 (Kalinyak et al, 1977;Corey et al, 1983). HSV-1 antibodies are present in 45-98% of adults, depending on living conditions and socioeconomic status, whereas adult HSV-2 seroprevalence ranges from 10-40% (Sacks, 1995) according to gender (more women than men), race (more blacks than whites), marital status (more divorced than single or married), and place of residence (city greater than suburb) (Whitley & Roizman, 1977;Breinig et al, 1990;Fleming et al, 1994;Nahmias et al, 1990). HSV-2 is found in higher prevalence among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive heterosexual and homosexual populations, compared with HIV-negative populations (Mertz, 1993).…”

Management rezidivierender genitaler Herpesinfektionen in Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe

“…In den Vereinigten Staaten beträgt die Prävalenz von HSV-2-Antikörpern im Blut bei der weissen Bevölkerung rund 20% [2][3][4], Bei der farbigen Bevölkerung und bei ausgelesenen Populationen kann die Prävalenz weitaus höher sein [2,5]. Bei 66-87% der Patienten mit HSV-2-Antikörpern gibt es keinen anamnestischen Hinweis auf eine Herpesepisode [3,5].…”