Background and objectives: An increased prevalence of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection has been recently observed in industrialized countries.
Goal: To determine HSV-2 seroprevalence in a high-risk population in Italy.
Study design: A cross-sectional study was performed to ascertain the HSV-2 prevalence among 919 persons attending an STD clinic in northern Italy. A HSV-2-specific glycoprotein G-2-based immunoglobulin G enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (Gull/Meridian ELISA; Meridian Diagnostics, Cincinnati, OH) was used and validated against Western blot analysis.
Results: A prevalence of 24.6% was found without differences between males and females. Seroprevalence increased with age and number of partners during the previous year. Compared with Western blot analysis, the Gull/Meridian ELISA showed a sensitivity of 91.9% and a specificity of 98%, and positive and negative predictive values of 93.9% and 97.4%, respectively.
Conclusion: This is the first Italian survey of HSV-2 infection conducted with a properly validated, Food and Drug Administration-approved, type-specific serologic method in a high-risk population. It is likely that between one to three million adults are infected with HSV-2.