Risk for HSV-2 Transmission Using Condoms
From the above article:
- The efficacy of male condom use in preventing herpes simplex virus-2 transmission among HIV-1 and herpes simplex virus-2 serodiscordant couples varied by gender, according to recent findings.
- "We found condoms reduced the per-act risk of [HSV-2] transmission by 65% from women to men and by 96% from men to women,” Helen Rees, MD, executive director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and colleagues wrote. “The high estimated efficacy of male condoms in reducing HSV-2 transmission has important public health implications for this highly prevalent sexually transmitted infection for which there is not an effective preventive HSV-2 vaccine.”
- “Our findings suggest that male condoms are very effective in preventing HSV-2 transmission from men to women and are likely to provide some protection for susceptible men as well,” Rees and colleagues concluded. “The mechanism of this sex difference may be related to the differing ability of the condom to diminish contact with anatomic sites of viral replication, as men tend to shed HSV on the penile shaft, whereas HSV-2 shedding in women occurs on the wider area of the vulva and perineum.”