- NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- The number of Americans infected with genital herpes each year climbed
82% between 1970 and 1985, led by women, blacks and twenty-somethings,
US researchers report.
-
- Their study, published in the May issue of the American
Journal of Epidemiology, found that the rate of new infections each year
rose to 8.4 per 1,000 people from 4.6 per 1,000 people during that
time.
-
- Women had higher rates of infection than men (9.9 versus
6.9 per 1,000) and blacks had higher rates of infection than whites (20.4
versus 6.3 per 1,000), the investigators found. Those aged 20 to 29 had
higher infection rates than any other age group (14.6 per 1,000 men and
22.5 per 1,000 women).
-
- And a greater percentage of women were being infected
with the virus during pregnancy, the researchers note, putting their babies
at risk for neonatal herpes, a disease that can cause permanent brain
damage
in those who survive.
-
- The study did not investigate the reasons behind the
increase in infection rates. But the researchers say their results
underscore
the need for prevention efforts that encourage people in their teens and
20s to have sex with fewer people and to use condoms, even though condoms
are not entirely effective in preventing the spread of herpes. Efforts
to develop a vaccine against genital herpes are ongoing.
-
- ``If the current trend of increasing prevalence is to
be reversed, strong prevention efforts will be needed as well as new
technologies,
such as vaccines,'' Dr. Gregory L. Armstrong of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues write.
-
- They note that there is no reason to believe that rates
of infection have leveled off or declined in the past 20 years, citing
at least one US study that found the presence of antibodies against the
herpes virus increased to about 22% of people aged 12 years and older in
the early 1990s from less than 17% in the late 1970s.
-
- Genital herpes, or herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), is
often ''silent,'' causing no outward symptoms. Infected people can have
periodic outbreaks of blisters and ulcers that can transmit the disease
to others. Once infected, a person remains infected for life.
-
- In the United States, 45 million people aged 12 and
older,
or one out of five of the total adolescent and adult population, is
infected
with genital herpes, studies have found.
-
- According to the current study, roughly 1.64 million
people were being newly infected each year with HSV-2 by 1985.
-
- SOURCE:
American Journal of Epidemiology 2001;153:912-920.
-
-
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|