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Definition:
Viral shedding occurs most often with herpes simplex virus infections. The virus remains in cells in the body after the first infection in a latent or dormant form. At some point this latency ends and the virus begins to multiply becoming transmittable. This shedding may or may not be accompanied by symptoms of a rash. HSV-2 is more likely to shed than HSV-1, especially in women. As a matter of fact, it is possible that over half of the people infected with HSV-2 shed the virus at some time without having any symptoms or rash. It is also estimated that one-third of all HSV-2 infections are caused when a non-infected person comes in contact with someone who is shedding virus without symptoms.

SHEDDING OF HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS

by Dr. H., Medical Director
www.herpes.org

updated December 1, 2006

Earlier in the history of the understanding of herpes infections the medical and social management of the diseases caused by these viruses seemed easy: Patients were told to avoid having physical contact with possibly susceptible areas of other persons’ bodies when obvious symptoms were present, such as redness or blisters. Yet, a tremendous increase of persons now harboring herpes simplex virus in the genital area has occurred over the last twenty years. This vast growth in the numbers of herpes sufferers – now totaling over fifty million people in America alone – has not seemed to be readily explained by the much, much smaller number of persons who actually had obvious genital infections.

This information has caused scientists to examine how the virus spreads. The conclusions have been nothing short of astonishing.

About ten years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association a landmark paper was published from the group at the University of Washington in Seattle which laid out for the first time the fact that patients with genital herpes "shed" virus from the genital tract, even when they don’t have any obvious symptoms. They found that overall in their study of 27 women, on 1% of days by virus culture these women shed herpes virus from the genital tract. They found that if the cultures were done daily for 100 days in these women, every single patient demonstrated shedding of virus at some time. Their conclusion was that women with genital herpes and their partners should be instructed regarding the possibility of asymptomatic shedding¹.