Global Estimates of Prevalent and Incident Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Infections in 2012

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection causes significant disease globally. Adolescent and adult infection may present as painful genital ulcers. Neonatal infection has high morbidity and mortality. Additionally, HSV-2 likely contributes substantially to the spread of HIV infection. The globa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 10; no. 1; p. e114989
Main Authors: Looker, Katharine J., Magaret, Amalia S., Turner, Katherine M. E., Vickerman, Peter, Gottlieb, Sami L., Newman, Lori M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.01.2015
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Adjustment
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Clinical trials
Disease transmission
Epidemics
Epidemiology
Estimates
Female
Females
Health aspects
Health risk assessment
Health risks
Herpes Genitalis - drug therapy
Herpes Genitalis - epidemiology
Herpes Genitalis - prevention & control
Herpes simplex
Herpes viruses
Herpesvirus 2, Human
Herpesvirus Vaccines - therapeutic use
HIV
HIV infections
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Incidence
Infection
Infections
Literature reviews
Male
Males
Medical research
Medicine
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mens health
Microbicides
Middle Aged
Models, Theoretical
Morbidity
Mortality
Neonates
Pediatric diseases
Physical Sciences
Prevalence
Refitting
Reproductive health
Research and Analysis Methods
Sex
Sexually transmitted diseases
STD
Studies
Survival analysis
Ulcers
Uncertainty
Vaccines
Viruses
Womens health
Young adults
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
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Summary:Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection causes significant disease globally. Adolescent and adult infection may present as painful genital ulcers. Neonatal infection has high morbidity and mortality. Additionally, HSV-2 likely contributes substantially to the spread of HIV infection. The global burden of HSV-2 infection was last estimated for 2003. Here we present new global estimates for 2012 of the burden of prevalent (existing) and incident (new) HSV-2 infection among females and males aged 15-49 years, using updated methodology to adjust for test performance and estimate by World Health Organization (WHO) region. We conducted a literature review of HSV-2 prevalence studies world-wide since 2000. We then fitted a model with constant HSV-2 incidence by age to pooled HSV-2 prevalence values by age and sex. Prevalence values were adjusted for test sensitivity and specificity. The model estimated prevalence and incidence by sex for each WHO region to obtain global burden estimates. Uncertainty bounds were computed by refitting the model to reflect the variation in the underlying prevalence data. In 2012, we estimate that there were 417 million people aged 15-49 years (range: 274-678 million) living with HSV-2 infection world-wide (11.3% global prevalence), of whom 267 million were women. We also estimate that in 2012, 19.2 million (range: 13.0-28.6 million) individuals aged 15-49 years were newly-infected (0.5% of all individuals globally). The highest burden was in Africa. However, despite lower prevalence, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions also contributed large numbers to the global totals because of large population sizes. The global burden of HSV-2 infection is large, leaving over 400 million people at increased risk of genital ulcer disease, HIV acquisition, and transmission of HSV-2 to partners or neonates. These estimates highlight the critical need for development of vaccines, microbicides, and other new HSV prevention strategies.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: KJL LMN. Performed the experiments: KJL. Analyzed the data: KJL ASM KMET PV SLG LMN. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KJL ASM KMET PV. Wrote the paper: KJL ASM KMET PV SLG LMN. Contributed to the ongoing progress and direction of the research: KJL ASM KMET PV SLG LMN. Provided technical expertise and input: KJL ASM KMET PV SLG LMN.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0114989