Condoms reduce transmission from males to females by 65%. Clearly, condoms are not as efficient of protecting men as they are for protecting women. Most transmission of herpes happens within the first three months of a sexual relationship. The statistics that we have on transmission, 4% per year from females to males, is based on people who have enrolled in clinical trials of discordant couples, that is, people who are in a relationship and one is infected with HSV two and the other is not. Obviously, people don’t meet in a bar say I have herpes, let’s enroll in a clinical trial. They’re together for a while before they enroll in the trial. I say all of this because I think it’s important for you to know who the population is that gave us that statistic. I also think that you could reasonably ask this person to get a herpes antibody test, knowing that if she tests in the low positive range that you would move onto the herpes western blot. But that’s your call.
Terri