He said a UW- led internationally study found out that herpes medication demonstrated modest reduction in HIV disease progression. Makhema, who was the leader of the study in Botswana Project Director for the Botswana Harvard Partnership, said the recently completed internationally multi center clinical trial was taken by people infected with both HIV and Herpes Simplex virus-2 (HSV-2). He explained that multiple studies have shown that frequent genital herpes recurrences increase the amount of HIV in the blood and genital tract. "The HIV is also shed from genital herpes ulcers and persons with such ulcers transmit HIV to others more efficiently," he said.
He revealed that there were 325 couples enrolled in the study from Botswana in HIV discordant couples in which one partner is infected while the other is not. He said genital herpes is thought to be a factor in a substantial proportion of new infections in Africa. "A clinical trial of genital herpes suppression in HIV discordant couples is the most direct way to see if we can make a person less infectious and likely to transmit HIV to their partners," Makhema revealed.
