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Nov. 22

— By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is looking for a rare population of women for a new vaccine trial -- women who have never been infected with genital herpes or its cousin, the cold sore virus.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on Friday it is working with drug giant GlaxoSmithKline to find 7,500 women to test the vaccine.

The viruses are incredibly common but the hope is a new vaccine -- the first to prevent a sexually transmitted disease -- will win approval based on the trial's results.

"More than 1 million new cases of genital herpes are diagnosed in the United States each year," NIAID head Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a statement. "The physical and psychological toll taken by this sexually transmitted disease is considerable."

The trial was started just a day after researchers confirmed the vaccine can prevent up to 70 percent of genital herpes infections in women. To the puzzlement of doctors, it does not seem to work in men.

Researchers also announced success this week with another vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease -- this one against the human wart virus blamed for most cases of cervical cancer. The trial of Merck and Co.'s. human papilloma virus vaccine showed it protected 100 percent of women who got it from the HPV-16 virus -- one of five wart viruses that cause cervical cancer.

Merck is working on the vaccine with the help of another one of the National Institutes of Health -- the National Cancer Institute.

HPV-16 is another very common virus, infecting up to 20 percent of U.S. adults. Like herpes, it is often symptomless and thus easily transmitted. And like herpes, it is incurable, affecting victims for life.

Cervical cancer kills more than 4,000 women a year in the United States and 250,000 worldwide.

ADOLESCENT VACCINE

NIAID vaccine expert Pamela McInnes hopes the trials will eventually usher in an era when teenagers can be vaccinated before they are exposed to some of the most common sexually transmitted diseases.

"I think the company is focusing on an adolescent vaccine as their goal," McInnes said in a telephone interview. "I think this opens the door for the prevention of other STDs."

Between 50 and 80 percent of Americans are infected with HSV-1, which causes cold sores. Up to 20 percent of those over 12 are infected with HSV-2, the cause of genital herpes.

Genital herpes can not only cause painful and debilitating outbreaks of blisters, but it can kill newborns if passed on by the mother in childbirth.

GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine only works in women who are not infected with either HSV-1 or HSV-2, so it will not be easy to find volunteers for the trial, McInnes said. "We estimate that we will probably need to screen 3 women for every one eligible," she said.

She hopes the vaccine will also prevent HSV-1, thus saving many women from the inconvenience and discomfort of cold sores.

Each of the 7,500 women in the trial will be watched for 20 months. Half the women will be vaccinated with the herpes shot and half against hepatitis A, another virus, so that every woman who volunteers will be protected against a disease.

More information on the trial can be found on the Internet at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/stds/herpevac/.

Copyright 2002 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.