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A study paid for by the U.S.’ National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, other U.S. government institutes and by
GlaxoSmithKline PLC revealed that treating genital herpes with aciclovir, a generic
antiviral medication, doesn’t reduce patients’ risk of being infected with HIV.
The study, published in the June 21 edition of The Lancet, found
that people infected with the herpes simplex virus Type 2, or HSV-2, the most
common cause of genital herpes, are almost three times more likely to become
infected with HIV than those who don’t suffer from the disease. The findings
showed that aciclovir reduced genital herpes by 47 percent and genital ulcers
definitely linked to HSV-2 by 63 percent.
Aciclovir works by blocking an enzyme that allows the herpes
virus to reproduce, stopping it to infect more cells in the body.
The study, involving 3,172 men and women in Africa, Peru and the U.S., also found that 75 people out
of the 1,581 who had been receiving aciclovir were later infected with HIV,
while, of the 1,591 people who received placebo pills, 64 contracted HIV. The women
were also interviewed about their risky sexual behavior with their recent
partners.
Connie Celum, a professor of global health and medicine at
the University of Washington and lead author of the study said “it’s probably
likely that we need considerably more potent interventions than we have,” the
Associated Press reports.
This is the second study trying to suppress HSV-2 in order
to protect against HIV with negative results. The first one was conducted in Tanzania
earlier this year and was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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