Herpes simplex virus type 2 and HIV infection among US military personnel: Implications for health prevention programmes

C. T. Bautista, D. E. Singer, R. J. O'Connell, N. Crum-Cianflone, B. K. Agan, J. A. Malia, J. L. Sanchez, S. A. Peel, N. L. Michael, P. T. Scott

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

US military personnel are routinely screened for HIV infection. Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) is a risk factor for HIV acquisition. To determine the association between HSV-2 and HIV, a matched case-control study was conducted among US Army and Air Force servicemembers with incident HIV infections (cases) randomly matched with two HIV-uninfected servicemembers (controls) between 2000 and 2004. HSV-2 prevalence was significantly higher among cases (30.3%, 138/456) than among controls (9.7%, 88/912, < 0.001). HSV-2 was strongly associated with HIV in univariate (odds ratio [OR] = 4.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.1-5.8) and multiple analyses (adjusted [OR] = 3.9, 95% CI = 2.8-5.6). The population attributable risk percentage of HIV infection due to HSV-2 was 23%. Identifying HSV-2 infections may afford the opportunity to provide targeted behavioural interventions that could decrease the incidence of HIV infections in the US military population; further studies are needed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)634-637
Number of pages4
JournalInternational Journal of STD and AIDS
Volume20
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2009

Keywords

  • Co-infection
  • Epidemiology
  • HIV
  • HSV-2
  • Herpes
  • Military
  • United States

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