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Subscribe to RSSAn experimental herpes vaccine protected young women against only one of the two types of the sexually transmitted virus, dashing hopes for widespread use of the treatment, researchers reported in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
For reasons that aren’t clear, the vaccine protected against herpes simplex virus type 1, known as HSV1, but not type 2, known as HSV2, the study of more than 8,000 women aged 18 to 30 found.
“I think this is the end of the vaccine,” said coauthor Dr. Peter A. Leone, an infectious disease specialist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “It would be difficult to imagine marketing a vaccine that would only work against HSV1.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in six Americans ages 14 to 49 is infected with HSV2. Nearly 60 percent of adults in the U.S. are infected with HSV1, federal health figures show.
Still, Leone and his fellow investigators called the vaccine against type 1 “a substantial step forward” in the quest for a future vaccine to protect against both types of herpes.
That's important because many people still think that the type 1 herpes virus causes only cold sores. “It used to be we’d think HSV1 above the waist, HSV2 below the waist,” Leone said.
In his study, though, HSV1 was a more common cause of genital disease in the women who didn’t get the herpes vaccine than HSV2. Scientists have assumed that people have to engage in oral sex to get genital HSV1 disease, Leone says, but his study didn’t find an association.
Women who weren’t infected with herpes at the beginning of the study were randomly assigned to receive either three shots of the herpes vaccine or three shots of the hepatitis A vaccine.
Two previous studies of the vaccine involved heterosexual couples in which either the man or woman was infected with herpes. Those found that the vaccine protected against both types of herpes in women, but neither of the types in men.
Perhaps having regular sex with an infected man primed the women’s immune systems to fight HSV1 and HSV2, or maybe they were naturally resistant, Leone and his coauthors theorized. Leone said it might not have worked for men because the skin covering the penis is different from the membranes lining the vagina and cervix.
So what’s next?
“We’re going to need a different approach,” Leone said. His trial used a vaccine containing an HSV protein designed to trigger an immune response against the virus. Maybe, he said, a vaccine that uses weakened live virus -- like the chickenpox vaccine -- would work better.
Meanwhile, Leone said, many Americans live in fear of contracting herpes. “The idea that you can transmit this and not know it terrifies people.”
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Leave a Comment:
How about a cure as well?
It's one thing to prevent people from getting it, but what about the 60% who are already infected?
That 60 percent of the adult population is the portion infected with HSV1 - oral herpes. It's mostly nothing more than a nuisance, and when an infection hits below the belt, there tends to be very few episodes. HSV2 is the one that can give you repeated painful and uncomfortable outbreaks down below. About 1 in 5 of the sexually active adult population are infected with it, according to one study I read, which could very well be wrong. Seems a bit high, but not totally implausible. But yeah, a cure would be nice.
I would suppose that if that 60% would practice safe sex and use condoms then well that might go a very long way to preventing others from contracting herpes. It is called personal responsibility.
HSV-1 and HSV-2 only share about 50% of the same antibodies, so a vaccine that works against HSV-1 would come up short in protecting against HSV-2.
However, if you already have HSV-1 (typically oral herpes), it will be harder for you to contract HSV-2 because the oral exposure will protect you against some of the HSV-2 virus.
Remember that even condoms can't fully protect against HSV-2 because both male and female bodies shed the virus from their entire genital region, not just the area where sexual contact is intended. And just asking someone before sex if they have herpes is inadequate because many people have HSV-2 and don't know it because the symptoms may have been very minor.
If the infected partner takes prescription meds for his/her herpes, plus there is no current symptoms, plus a condom is used, then the chance of transmission is much lower, but it still exists. Also, any cuts or irritation in either partner's genital region (such as nicks from shaving) can increase the chance of herpes transmission. It's a jungle out there...
txmom32: I agree with your comment, though it is slightly ignorant. It is true if people were more sexually responsible the percentage spreading std's would decrease. However, you're not thinking of the millions of married, monogamous people who have it. Or the people who were lied to and now have it. Or the people who were assaulted and now have it. etc...
A cure for people who are not sexually reckless would be a blessing.
I'm just glad not all of my ex girlfriends had a sore on their lip. On their face I mean.
Adrianne...absolutely a cure would be good...apparently they have a cure for part of the problem but seem to wish to shelve it becaue it is not addressing both strains....personally I think it would be reasonable to vaccinate against the part they can cure and educate those vaccinaed about exactly what it covers and educate further about safe sex practives so that other STD's can be avoided to the greates extent possible.
Unfortunately those who contract through unwanted attack or a partner who does not disclose has the short end of the stick at this point. Once they are affected they still need to practice safe sex with their partners, as unfortunately as that is. Same goes for partners...you do what you have to do to protect the ones you love.
First, it's not just a nuisance. If it gets in your eyes, it can damage the optic nerve and cause blindness.
Also, like has been said above, some people don't get a chance to be responsible. I know a lady whose husband was cheating and brought herpes home to her. How nice to share. Another lady I know got genital warts the same way. Should we all use condoms with our spouse? With our live-in lover?
TonyInDallas....Again, unfortunate and I would suppose that if the wife, of a man who brings an STD into their bed, has learned that he is a cad and will probably do fairly well in a civil lawsuit against him. But let us keep this in perspective...there are other cures to much more devastating illnesses that should be explored as well. I think it is reasonable for them to keep the vaccine available that kills one strain and then keep working on the ability to fight the other but then again these STD's are not the same in importance, devastation or mortality as finding cures for such ills as leukemia, Malaria or HIV.
Agreed. However, work on one virus can lead to breakthroughs in others.
Do not discount any research.
Tony...I don't discount research...It is very important and in many illnesses can create livable situations. Having preventatives come out in the form of a vaccinations is wonderful. Unfortunately, a whole lot of time is spent on creating new life time drugs....it is very discouraging.
There's more money in treating than curing. It's one of our corporate cultural problems.
TonyInDallas....I don't see it as just a corporate culture problem because our Federal Donations to medicine are also being used for research. They get all caught up in what and how they will treat some aspects of research and forget that there are people who suffer in other areas that need answers to their ills and not just a band-aid... I don't think the problem stops with corporate greed but also corruption from those who create the guidelines that open the vault to federal funding.
It's easy to judge others and their sexual lives, but until you have suffered the horrendous blisters and jangle of your nerve endings that signals genital herpes then you really have no idea what you are talking about. I was not promiscuous and caught it from my cheating husband - sad! So I now have reminder of him every time I have an outbreak. My doc won't prescribe the anti viral meds unless I have symptoms and by then I know I have a full week ahead of me feeling like my genitals are red raw and I have no concentration at all. I would love a cure but know that it won't be found in my lifetime. I would be nice to have a partner again but wouldn't dare have sex in case I infect that person - I couldn't be that nasty to them knowing I have it and put them through my hell as well.
Aha! So now we know....it's Mark who's been spreading all this herpes. And this little nugget “The idea that you can transmit this and not know it terrifies people.” Not know how? It's obvious...Mark has been leaving it on all the toilets at McDonalds and BP stations. Actually, most everybody gets it the same way.
If you're a grown-up who's terrified of herpes, don't have sex. That's really all you can do to guarantee you won't get it. Other than that, use condoms and get tested regularly and make sure your partners get tested.
I'm kind of amused by the number of people I see on the dating site I use who make it clear they are looking for casual sex but state that they're terrified of herpes. Exactly the kind of person I don't want to go out with: Someone who is completely freaked out by the completely plausible outcome of their regular actions. I'm not too worried about HSV2, but I am highly allergic to congenital stupidity. I've also found that those tend to be the same people who refuse to educate themselves or get themselves tested regularly for STDs.
I had a dear friend contract HSV2 from a guy who didn't tell her he knew he had it, and when she turned up with it said he thought it had "gotten better." Um, no.
I'm thinking a vaccine would be great, but it would only serve a real purpose if it was affordable and widely available.
Yeah, this vaccine approach does nothing for the 60% who are infected with H2. This is BS. Where are the priorities here?? Yes, it's important to do what can be done by minimizing infections but frankly, a mandatory sex ed class in highschool would do more to at least educate teens about H1 and H2 than spending millions on a vaccine. We need a cure, damn it!
Weather they ever find a cure is any ones guess at this point. At least their trying to find away to prevent anyone else from getting it. We would not need a cure if no one got it to begin with. What I fail to understand is it sounds like they have a product that at least works on H1, why not at least protect everyone with that until they find something that works on H2. Batting 50/50 is better then then not batting at all.
Has anyone else got an advertisement in the middle of these comments for a new medicine with two fingers sticking into the air? Is that the key to preventing herpes? Two fingers? Ah, I remember the two finger days.
Just exactly how do they test this?
I believe they vaccinate a group of test subjects that have tested negative for HSV and give a similar test group a placebo vaccine. Then they wait a year, 2 years - whatever - and test them again. If the vaccinated test group has fewer cases of HSV than the group that received the placebo, that indicates they have some sort of immunity. I assume they don't tell the subjects what they've been vaccinated for, but I could be wrong.
In an ironic twist my ex wife ended up with HSV-2 from her new husband. From what I know of herpes, the only scary part of it ( besides the risk of transmission to others ) is that if you touch an infected part of your body and then another part such as your eyes, you could end up with it in your eyes.
Other then that HSV-1 and 2 are major annoyances and not life treating, so it dose seem odd that people would be so terrified of it. HIV is far more of a terror in my humble opinion.
QE137: I agree that it is odd that people fear it. HSV-1 is what cold sores are. I don't recall ever seeing someone panic when they get a cold sore. They say that a large percentage of the population that has herpes don't know it and may never even show signs of it yet they can still be contagious to others.
Getting it in your eyes can lead to blindness.
The herpes virus is said to cause cervical and throat cancer.
Actually certain strains of HPV (not herpes) can cause cervical, throat, and oral (and maybe other) cancers. Just because someone has one of these cancers, that does not mean they have HPV, though.
Since the odds are higher for single celled organisms to mutate , due to their extremely high reproduction ability , the CDC must stay on high alert for new , highly dangerous , infections , from newly formed organisms...
In 1979-80 I received several Smallpox vaccinations as treatment for mouth cold sores. The frequency and severity of attacks was much reduced. The Chickenpox vaccine may actually be the way to a solution. because Herpies, Chickenpox, and Smallpox are similar retro-viruses.
everyone above this line has herpes
As do you, Stanley, whether you know it or not.
i wouldnt care for my own sake if I had it. The only reason that I would care to know is so I could keep other safe.
You might be right, but I have never had symptoms I have known about. Is that not the most insidious thing ever? You could go around having it, not knowing and spreading it like wildfire.
Given that a link has been established between being infected with HSV-1 and Alzheimer's, why abandon the vaccine even if it only is effective against HSV-1?
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081207134109.htm
because its not a money maker for pharma...
According to me, avoiding , multiple sex partners, using condoms are the safe method to avoid herpes infection. This measures often are helpful in avoiding any kind of STDs.
The best way to avoid development of herpes infection is by using condoms and avoiding multiple sex partners. This is the main cause of developing any kind of development of STDs. This should be taken care of.