Scientists Frustrated in Search for Genital Herpes Vaccine

Better funding could help defeat the virus, which infects 1 in 5 Americans.

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, April 13, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

FRIDAY, April 13 (HealthDay News) -- Experts say a lack of funds is slowing attempts to find a truly effective vaccine against genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease that can be devastating for the one in five Americans over 12 who carry the virus.

Genital infection with the herpes simplex viruses (HSV) 1 or 2 is not just an inconvenience, doctors note. It is a painful, recurrent illness that causes psychological distress, raises health risks for newborns, and boosts the carrier's odds for a much more deadly virus, HIV.

And even as the Herpevac trial -- the first major publicly funded trial of a preventive vaccine -- is set to get under way, a leader of that trial says the vaccine, even if successful, would not be the solution to the herpes epidemic.

"The Herpevac trial is a vaccine that is only going to affect the [uninfected] adolescent woman," said Dr. Lawrence Corey, head of infectious diseases and virology at the University of Washington, in Seattle. "It is not going to be effective in men or in those who are HIV-positive. We need to do better."

Prior, expensive failures have made the drug industry skittish about funding herpes vaccine trials, however. So, despite the fact that most adult Americans either have HSV-1 or 2, or are at very high risk of contracting it in their lifetime, not enough is being done to stop the pathogen.

"I would say that, at the moment, the genital herpes vaccine is a field that does not have much interest, does not have much money," Corey said. "The need for an HSV vaccine is really substantive, but there is not much of a program in the industrialized, developing world to develop such a vaccine."

Part of the problem lies in the complexity of the virus. While simpler viruses such as the flu simply mutate their outer coats to evade the human immune system, HSV and other persistent viral infections are much more stable.

However, they have another secret weapon. Compared to other viruses, HSV 1 and 2 "have a lot more genes and gene products that are redirecting and subverting the [host] immune response," Corey explained.