Herpes Vaccine Status: "A Few Years" Out

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http://www.dermatologytimes.com/derm....jsp?id=157718

Article date: April 1, 2005

Washington — Clinical studies have already demonstrated proof of concept for both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for herpes simplex virus (HSV)-2. Both types of HSV-2 vaccines are currently under development and the next few years should bring promising results, accordingto Lawrence R. Stanberry, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the department of pediatrics and director of the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Dr. Stanberry summarized the current status of HSV-2 vaccine development at the 44th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) here.

Prophylactic vs. therapeutic. Prophylactic vaccines are designed to prevent an uninfected person from becoming infected or from developing disease if infection occurs. Of the 24 vaccines currently licensed for use in children or adults in the United States, all are prophylactic.

This means that intense work is underway, and near culmination, to produce a true vaccine for HSV-2 (genital herpes; since so many people have HSV-1 -- ~90% -- the interest level is lower). So give it a couple of years, and we won't have to worry about whether our partners have HSV-2, as long as we've had our shots.

Therapeutic vaccines, by contrast, are designed to eliminate chronic infection, or, if that is not possible, then to reduce the frequency or severity of disease outbreaks in individuals who are already infected, Dr. Stanberry tells Dermatology Times.

And, for people who have it and are troubled by outbreaks (I've had 2 in 6 years), there might even be a "cure."