Dear Ann Landers,
ou recently printed a letter from "Wisconsin Woman," whose husband has genital herpes. She said that by abstain-ing from sexual contact during her husband's outbreaks, she has re-mained free from the infection. It is important to point out that scientists now believe people in-fected with genital herpes release substantial amounts of infectious virus even while displaying no physical signs of the infection. This is known as "asymptomatic shedding." That means people with herpes can transmit the virus even when no symptoms are present. Some researchers suspect that as many as 60 to 70 percent of new cases of herpes result from sexual contact with an infected person dur-ing periods of asymptomatic shedding. Please make this clear to your readers so they will understand that they cannot rely on the absence of physical signs of herpes as a guarantee that they will not be infected. Data presented in October 1994 at the 34th Interscience Confer-ence on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Orlando, Fla., showed that asymptomatic shedding could be reduced by 95 percent through daily treatment with acyclovir, an antiviral drug currently used to treat herpes. Scientists, however, cannot yet say for certain if this also prevents infection. You have an excellent track record of informing readers about geni-tal herpes, Ann. With more than 30 million Americans infected with this virus, those not infected may unknowingly continue, like "Wis-consin Woman," to place themselves at risk. Please keep giving us solid information. -North Carolina Reader

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