Treating Herpes May Not Prevent HIV

For some time now, physicians believed that people with herpes were more at risk of contracting the HIV virus.  So it was quite obvious for them to conceive that by treating the herpes virus, they could considerably reduce the risk of HIV.  Now this new study may have proven this concept to be wrong.

In this study, researchers tracked over 3000 people with the herpes virus. They administered Aciclovir, an antiviral that suppresses the virus, to half of them, and a placebo to the other half.

After eighteen months, scientists found that the number of people contracting HIV was not low enough to conclude that treating the herpes virus reduced the risk of HIV. But this does not mean that the idea of treating herpes to avoid HIV is totally incorrect. May be larger doses would be more effective, or using Aciclovir along with another antiviral.

The study was published in the June 21st edition of The Lancet.

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