Forty-five million Americans are infected with HSV-2, the serotype most commonly associated with genital herpes, and studies in developing countries reveal seroprevalence rates ranging from 60% to 80% in young adults. In the United States, HSV-2 seropositivity is higher among women (23.1%) than men (11.2%) and among black persons (40.3%) than white persons (13.7%).  

We believe that these data underscore the importance of our work:  we hypothesize that intravaginal delivery of acyclovir will reduce transmission rates of genital herpes and may possibly reduce the occurrences of symptoms for those women who are already HSV positive.