ArticleArchives of internal medicine2009
A pooled analysis of the effect of condoms in preventing HSV-2 acquisition.
Article in Archives of internal medicine, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 43 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 154 citations in OpenAlex.
- British Association of Sexual Health and HIV UK national guideline for the management of anogenital herpes, 2024.International journal of STD & AIDS · 2025Guideline
- Pooled it
- Application of causal inference methods in individual-participant data meta-analyses in medicine: addressing data handling and reporting gaps with new proposed reporting guidelines.BMC medical research methodology · 2024Pooled it
- Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment Guidelines, 2021.MMWR. Recommendations and reports : Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Recommendations and reports · 2021Guideline
- Interventions for men and women with their first episode of genital herpes.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines, 2015.MMWR. Recommendations and reports : Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Recommendations and reports · 2015Guideline
- Oral antiviral therapy for prevention of genital herpes outbreaks in immunocompetent and nonpregnant patients.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2014Pooled it
- Guidelines for the prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections in HIV-exposed and HIV-infected children: recommendations from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HIV Medicine Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.The Pediatric infectious disease journal · 2013Guideline
- Genital herpes.BMJ clinical evidence · 2011Pooled it
- Prevalence of Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2) infection and associated risk factors in a cohort of HIV negative women in Durban, South Africa.BMC research notes · 2016Trial
- Effect of Condom Use on Per-act HSV-2 Transmission Risk in HIV-1, HSV-2-discordant Couples.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2016Trial
- Tenofovir Gel for the Prevention of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Infection.The New England journal of medicine · 2015Trial
- The impact of brief messages on HSV-2 screening uptake among female defendants in a court setting: a randomized controlled trial utilizing prospect theory.Journal of health communication · 2015Trial
- [Management of genital herpes].Dermatologie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- A review of HSV pathogenesis, vaccine development, and advanced applications.Molecular biomedicine · 2024Review
- Vaccines against Genital Herpes: Where Are We?Vaccines · 2020Review
- Using data from 'visible' populations to estimate the size and importance of 'hidden' populations in an epidemic: A modelling technique.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2020Article
- Genome-wide association study (GWAS) of human host factors influencing viral severity of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2).Genes and immunity · 2019Article
- Evaluation of a nanophosphor lateral-flow assay for self-testing for herpes simplex virus type 2 seropositivity.PloS one · 2019Article
- A trivalent subunit antigen glycoprotein vaccine as immunotherapy for genital herpes in the guinea pig genital infection model.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe degree of effectiveness of condom use in preventing the transmission of herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) is uncertain. To address this issue, we performed a large pooled analysis.
methodsWe identified prospective studies with individual-level condom use data and laboratory-defined HSV-2 acquisition. Six studies were identified through a review of publications through 2007: 3 candidate HSV-2 vaccine studies, an HSV-2 drug study, an observational sexually transmitted infection (STI) incidence study, and a behavioral STI intervention study. Study investigators provided us individual-level data to perform a pooled analysis. Effect of condom use was modeled using a continuous percentage of sex acts during which a condom was used and, alternatively, using absolute numbers of unprotected sex acts.
resultsA total of 5384 HSV-2-negative people at baseline contributed 2 040 894 follow-up days; 415 persons acquired laboratory-documented HSV-2 during follow-up. Consistent condom users (used 100% of the time) had a 30% lower risk of HSV-2 acquisition compared with those who never used condoms (hazard ratio [HR], 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40-0.94) (P = .01). Risk for HSV-2 acquisition increased steadily and significantly with each unprotected sex act (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.08-1.25) (P < .001). Condom effectiveness did not vary by gender.
conclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the largest analysis using prospective data to assess the effect of condom use in preventing HSV-2 acquisition. Although the magnitude of protection was not as large as has been observed with other STIs, we found that condoms offer moderate protection against HSV-2 acquisition in men and women.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.