Herpes virus found in almost all healthy individuals

The herpes virus HSV-1 is the leading cause of virus-induced blindness in the developed world. About 500,000 people suffer from herpetic eye disease in the US. A study found that 98% of healthy, asymptomatic subjects produced HSV-1 DNA in their tears or saliva at least once during the course of the one month study. Risk factors for HSV infection include age, stress, socioeconomic status, education, age sexual activity began and number of years of sexual activity. Herpatic disease increases with age, probably due to repeated infection or reactivation but such things as stress and sunlight exposure. Thus, a vaccine may be a valuable resource in preventing transmission of the virus.

Source: summary of medical news story as reported by AScribe

Related Disease Topics:

• Virus
• Herpetic eye disease
• Infection
• Herpes

Article Source Details

About: Herpes virus found in almost all healthy individuals

Date: 5 January 2005

Source: AScribe

URL: http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050105.101021&time=10%2050%20PST&year=2005&public=1

Related Medical Topics

This summary article refers to the following medical categories:

• Research
• Research and virus
• Research and herpetic eye disease
• Research and infection
• Risk and virus
• Cause of virus
• Risk and herpetic eye disease
• Cause of herpetic eye disease
• Risk and infection
• Cause of herpetic eye disease
• Risk and herpes
• Research and herpes
• Cause of herpes

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