Herpes treatment helps infected women also fight HIV

Levels of HIV come down in HIV-positive women who are also infected with herpes simplex and are being treated for it with the antiviral drug valacyclovir.

These are the findings of a study published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.The research was conducted in Burkina-Faso in Africa and took the form of a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial.Valocyclovir is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Valtrex.

Dr Nicolas Nagot of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues found that treating herpes simplex 2 (HSV-2) infections with valocyclovir reduced levels of HIV-1 RNA in both the blood plasma and the genital mucosa, with the latter being more significant.And this effect seemed to get stronger over the three months of the study.Once a woman has herpes, the risk of getting HIV is increased and other research studies have shown that when HSV-2 is present it increases the amount of HIV-1 in plasma and genital mucosa.

The study enrolled 140 women who were tested positive for HIV-1 and HSV-2 and were not eligible for highly active antiretroviral therapy.The participants' levels of HIV and herpes were monitored for 24 weeks; 12 before and 12 after being randomly assigned to either the placebo or the valocyclovir treatment group.

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