We. Lafferty et al., Herpes simplex virus type 1 as a cause of genital herpes: Impact on surveillance and prevention, J INFEC DIS, 181(4), 2000, pp. 1454-1457
This study compared characteristics of patients who had herpes simplex viru
s (HSV) type 1 with characteristics of patients who had HSV-2, by use of da
ta from a cross-sectional analysis. Data were collected in an urban sexuall
y transmitted diseases clinic from patients who had positive genital HSV cu
ltures. Overall, 17.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 14.9%-19.3%) of 1145
genital HSV isolates obtained during 1993-1997 were HSV-1. The proportion o
f HSV-1 among initial genital herpes infections was higher among men who ha
d sex with men (46.9%) than among women (21.4%) and was lowest among hetero
sexual men (14.6%). White race (odds ratio [OR], 3.7; 95% CI, 2.3-5.9) and
receptive oral sex in the preceding 2 months (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.9-4.3) sig
nificantly increased the odds that initial infections were HSV-1 rather tha
n HSV-2. Genital HSV-1 may often be acquired through contact with a partner
's mouth. These data suggest that seroprevalence studies based solely on HS
V-2 type-specific assays underestimate overall prevalence of genital HSV in
fection.