Does Valtrex help reduce risk of transmission?
The drug Valtrex -- prescribed to prevent recurrences of genital herpes -- may actually help prevent the spread of the virus from one sexual partner to another.
The lifelong infection affects 1 in 5 adults, and many infected people don't have symptoms and don't know they are infected.
In the study heterosexual, monogamous couples were instructed to use condoms during sex. Previous research has shown that even when told to usecondoms, many monogamous couples don't follow these instructions.
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Valtrex transmission rate reduction
Once-daily Valtrex cut the chance of the partner getting herpes with no symptoms by 50%. The risk of developing genital herpes with symptoms in the partner dropped by 77%.
This is the first time that a drug has been shown effective against the transmission of hereps infections
Research: Can Valtrex prevent transmission? Does Valtrex protect your partner?
Corey is professor of laboratory medicine and medicine at the University of Washington and head of infectious diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Corey's study was conducted in 126 sites on four continents. Researchers identified more than 1,400 couples in which one had genital herpes and one did not. In half the couples, the person with herpes got Valtrex; in the other half, the infected person got a placebo. During the eight-month study period, the other partner was then monitored to find out if they had become infected.
Surveys over the years have shown that one of the major concerns most people have is transmitting genital herpesto a sex partner. "We now have a drug that for the first time allows a person to usemedication as one form of decreasing transmission," he says.
Because the couples were asked to use condoms every time the had sex, some of the reduction in transmission may be due to condom use, not Valtrex alone.
"This is a breakthrough concept," he says. "It could offer a means of managing other sexually transmitted diseases.
"Condoms have been only partially effective in preventing transmission," says Corey. "It could be that most monogamous couples use condoms for contraceptionrather than to prevent transmission of infection. So condoms aren't necessarily always put on in the really early stages of the sexual event. That may be a factor for herpes. In that case, other approaches of prevention are necessary."
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