LETTER
Recurrence Rates of Genital Herpes
Lewis Marshall and
Peter Purnell
1 June 1995 | Volume 122 Issue 11 | Page 883
TO THE EDITOR:
In the study by Benedetti and colleagues [1], patients had an unusually low seroprevalence of 13% for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection. Other authors have reported a seroprevalence ranging from 35% to 60% in the white U.S. population [2, 3]. Previous exposure to HSV-1 favorably influences subsequent morbidity from HSV-2 infection [4] as shown in this study. The high recurrence rates and severe disease in this group may reflect this low rate of previous exposure to HSV-1 and thus are not necessarily applicable to all patients infected with HSV-2. For this reason, we feel that these results may not apply to other populations. The low seroprevalence of HSV-1 may have occurred because patients with the most severe infections were self-selected and these patients presented for treatment. However, patients who were previously exposed had milder and perhaps even asymptomatic HSV-2 infection and therefore were not included in this study of referred patients.
1. Benedetti J, Corey L, Ashley R. Recurrence rates in genital herpes after symptomatic first-episode infection. Ann Intern Med. 1994; 121:847-54.
2. Corey L. Herpes simplex virus infections during the decade since the licensure of acyclovir. J Med Virol Suppl. 1993; 1:7-12.
3. Nahmias AJ, Lee FK, Beckman-Nahmias S. Seroepidemiological and sociological patterns of herpes simplex virus infection in the world. Scand J Infect Dis Suppl. 1990; 69:19-36.
4. Holmes K, ed. Sexually Transmitted Diseases. 2d ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1990:397.
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