Federal health officials are reporting a significant decrease in herpes infections over the past 15 years, even as researchers are still stymied in trying to create a vaccine against the lifelong sexually transmitted disease.
About 48.1 percent of people between 14 and 49 years old are infected with herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), which is the most common strain and causes cold sores, according to the 2015-2016 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 1999-2000 survey, 59.4 percent of that population was infected.
Likewise, about 12.1 percent have herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), which is responsible for genital herpes — down from 18 percent over the same 15-year period.
“I think it’s absolutely significant,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama who was not involved in the CDC study.
The CDC did not provide total population numbers of infected individuals, but Dr. Marrazzo estimated the prevalence for HSV-2 infection at about 1-in-9 individuals.
Herpes is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. HSV-1 can be transferred by kissing or sharing drinks, eating utensils and lip balm. It also can lead to genital herpes via oral sex.
The survey data show herpes being most prevalent in with 40- to 49-year-olds having the highest infection rates — 59.7 percent with HSV-1 and 21.2 percent with HSV-2.
Fourteen- to 19-year-olds had the lowest infection rates — 27 percent with HSV-1 and 0.8 percent with HSV-2.
Dr. Marrazzo said the lower infection rates bode well for future declines of the STD, as research shows teenagers initiating intercourse later in life and using safer sex practices.
“Maybe we are now seeing the payoff of a couple of decades of a more frank discussion of STDs and sexual behaviors and that may be a really, really good development,” she said.
However, other data highlighted the most vulnerable populations for herpes infection: Mexican-Americans had the highest rates of HSV-1 infection (71.7 percent), and blacks had the highest rates of HSV-2 infection (34.6 percent). Women had higher rates of infection than men for both strains, 50.9 percent vs. 45.2 percent.
There is no cure for genital herpes, but Dr. Marrazzo said prescribed viral suppressants help shorten outbreaks, decrease symptoms and reduce the odds of infecting someone else.
More challenging is developing a vaccine, which scientists have been chasing for nearly three decades.
“It’s really been an immunologic conundrum,” Dr. Marrazzo said, adding that scientists have yet to discover how to manipulate the immune system to rid the body of a virus that settles in.
“So figuring out how to modify that balance between tolerating a virus and getting rid of it, when it really wants to live with you forever, is really, really, challenging,” she said.
Last year, scientists at the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) published the results of a clinical trial for a herpes vaccine that was shown to be safe, well-tolerated in subjects and produced an immune response.
Walla Dempsey, a program officer in NIAID’s neurology branch who did not work directly on the clinical trial, said a vaccine is needed to reduce herpes transmission to newborns, who can suffer devastating effects like herpes encephalitis and death.
“Yes, you’d like to prevent the transmission of herpes for lots of reasons,” Ms. Dempsey said, “but really the unmet medical need is to prevent or reduce the incidence of neonatal herpes, which is a very devastating disease. High morbidity, significant mortality in some cases.”
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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