Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020 - Wednesday, October 15, 1997; 6:53 p.m. EDT
Malcolm Ritter AP Science Writer
In all, about one in five Americans over age 12 has the sexually transmitted infection, and most of them don't know it, the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention reported.
Dr. Michael St. Louis, who wrote the report with colleagues at the CDC, said it was surprising that herpes went up during the 1980s despite publicity about AIDS. Other sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhea, declined.
He said other studies have shown that young people increased their rates of unprotected sex, premarital sex and multiple sex partners. And condoms appear to be less effective in blocking herpes than other diseases because the virus can be transmitted from parts of the body not covered by a condom.
Gray Davis, president of the Herpes Advice Center in Durham, N.C., said the study shows many people ignored safe-sex warnings about AIDS in the 1980s.
"What these numbers are telling us is that the young, sexually active white population didn't consider themselves at risk for HIV," she said. "So the HIV message, while it was very effective in the gay population, where it was targeted to, didn't reach the rest of the population."
One reason for concern is that herpes sores may make a person more vulnerable to infection with the AIDS virus, the researchers said in the study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Experts said it is time to get tougher on herpes. They said new steps could include screening for it in patients at clinics for sexually transmitted diseases and in pregnant women, whose newborns could die if infected.
"We're screening for HIV, we're screening for hepatitis B, we aren't screening for genital herpes," said Dr. Lawrence Corey of the University of Washington.
Genital herpes is caused by the herpes simplex type 2 virus, and much less often by the type 1 virus. The study used blood samples from about 24,000 people to reveal the prevalence of type 2 infection.
The data were gathered between 1988 and 1994 and compared with a similar study done from 1976 to 1980.
The results suggest that 45 million Americans are infected, including 18 percent of whites and 46 percent of blacks.
Among whites ages 12 to 19, the infection rate jumped from slightly less than 1 percent to 4.5 percent.
The rate among whites in their 20s went from 7.7 percent to 14.7 percent. Among older whites and all blacks, the increases in each age group were too small to be considered significant.
Genital herpes causes occasional outbreaks of sores or itching in the genital areas and around the buttocks or thighs. The sores can look like ulcers or paper cuts, and they can be painful. No cure is known.
People can transmit the virus to a sex partner even when they don't have symptoms. Only 9 percent of infected people in the study even knew they had the virus.
Copyright 1997/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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