June 26, 2001 CHICAGO (AP) - A study confirmed that condoms significantly reduce women's risk of contracting genital herpes. But they may not be as effective in protecting men.
One theory is that condoms do not shield men from the entire area from which women shed the incurable virus. But Dr. Anna Wald, who led the study, cautioned that the finding was more likely a statistical fluke.
Genital herpes is estimated to infect almost one-fourth of U.S. adults and is spread through sexual contact when it enters the body through tiny passages in the skin. Most people who have the virus do not know it. Women are at higher risk of contracting the virus from an infected partner.
While health officials had long advised condom use, this is the first study to confirm that condoms offer protection against genital herpes, said Wald, director of the University of Washington virology research clinic.
The study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association looked at 528 monogamous couples with one infected partner from 1993 to 1996. About half the uninfected partners were women. Only 61 percent of couples reported using condoms during the study period, though they were advised to do so.
Overall, 31 people - 26 women and five men - acquired herpes during the study. But among the 118 participants who reported using condoms more than 50 percent of the time, only two - both men - acquired herpes.
Herpes sores can make it easier to become infected with the AIDS virus, and without precautions, herpes can be transmitted during childbirth, infecting the baby and sometimes causing brain damage or death.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
