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kalikshama -> RE: Circumcision linked to drop in HSV-2 (3/8/2012 3:36:57 PM)
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quote:
I don`t understand, wearing condoms instead of circumzition?
Right, most people think of condoms for preventing STDs rather than circumcision. However, not using a condom doesn't mean one will automatically catch something.
The study in the OP purports circumcision to have benefits in reducing transmission.
However, I wonder what role, if any, this plays:
quote:
Compared with uncircumcised men, circumcised men were younger, more educated, more likely to be unemployed, more likely to be of Sotho ethnicity, and more likely to know their HIV status.
Wiki on HSV-2 and condoms:
HSV-2 Prevention
As with almost all sexually transmitted infections, women are more susceptible to acquiring genital HSV-2 than men.[28] On an annual basis, without the use of antivirals or condoms, the transmission risk of HSV-2 from infected male to female is approximately 8–11%.[24][29] This is believed to be due to the increased exposure of mucosal tissue to potential infection sites. Transmission risk from infected female to male is approximately 4–5% annually.[29] Suppressive antiviral therapy reduces these risks by 50%.[30] Antivirals also help prevent the development of symptomatic HSV in infection scenarios—meaning the infected partner will be seropositive but symptom free—by about 50%. Condom use also reduces the transmission risk significantly.[31][32] Condom use is much more effective at preventing male to female transmission than vice-versa.[31] The effects of combining antiviral and condom use is roughly additive, thus resulting in approximately a 75% combined reduction in annual transmission risk.[citation needed] These figures reflect experiences with subjects having frequently recurring genital herpes (>6 recurrences per year). Subjects with low recurrence rates and those with no clinical manifestations were excluded from these studies.[citation needed] Previous HSV-1 infection appears to reduce the risk for acquisition of HSV-2 infection among women by a factor of 3.[33]
However, asymptomatic carriers of the HSV-2 virus are still contagious. In many infections, the first symptom a person will have of their own infection is the horizontal transmission to a sexual partner or the vertical transmission of neonatal herpes to a newborn at term. Since most asymptomatic individuals are unaware of their infection, they are considered at high risk for spreading HSV.[citation needed]
In October 2011, it was reported that the anti-HIV drug tenofovir, when used topically in a microbicidal vaginal gel, prevented herpes virus infections.[34]
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