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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It's an unexpected form of HIV prevention -- treatment for herpes.
A new study from researchers in France, England, and the African nation Burkina Faso reveals women who are infected with both the genital herpes virus (HSV-2) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can reduce HIV levels with anti-herpes treatment. Results show three months of anti-herpes treatment reduced the amount of HIV in the blood and in the vagina. Researchers report the findings could lead to new ways to prevent HIV and to treatments for patients with both viruses.
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"Our results have important potential implications for public health and clinical practice, as HSV-2 control could become a new form of HIV prevention targeting HIV-infected individuals, as well as providing clinical benefits," reports Philippe Mayaud, M.D., from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. "Importantly, an HSV vaccine that would either prevent HSV infection or diminish the clinical and sub-clinical manifestations of HSV with a similar efficacy on HIV as HSV suppressive therapy would represent a long-lasting form of HIV prevention."
Researchers also found having the herpes virus increased the replication of HIV. Previous research suggested HSV-2 enhances the risk of HIV-1 by about three-fold.
The new findings could help reduce the sexual transmission of HIV from infected patients to their partners because both frequency and quantity of HIV in the female genital tract are closely related to the transmission of the virus, according to researchers.
According to the latest figures published in the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update, in 2006 about 4.3 million people were newly infected with HIV, mostly through heterosexual intercourse.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2007;356:790-9
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