Consistent use of condoms may avert the transmission of genital herpes (HSV-2), particularly from an infected man to a susceptible woman, according to a study published in the June 27 Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers at the UW and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center conducted the study, the first to document the protection condoms offer against genital herpes.

Approximately one in five people in the United States have herpes; many do not experience or recognize the symptoms. According to the study's primary investigator Anna Wald, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and of epidemiology, the analysis suggests that consistent condom use could prevent up to 90 percent of new cases of HSV-2 among women.

In this study, women were six times more likely than men to get infected per sexual encounter. The study did not indicate that condoms helped prevent men from acquiring genital herpes, but very few men acquired herpes during the follow-up.