Prevalence of active infection by herpes simplex virus type 2 in patients with high‐risk human papillomavirus infection: a cross‐sectional study

The aim is to determine the prevalence of active infection by herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) among Mexican women with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) cervical infection, recruited from public gynecology and colposcopy services. In a cross-sectional study, HSV-2 antibodies, HSV-2 DNA, and HR-HPV DNA were quantified. Significant differences in HSV-2 seroprevalence and HSV-2 active infection rates were found between negative and positive HR-HPV cases. HSV-2 seroprevalence was 28.15% and 16.1% (P = .0001), while HSV-2 active infection rates were 6.83% and 0.62% (P = .001) for positive and negative HR-HPV groups, respectively. The risk of HSV-2 seropositivity was 1.7 times greater for HR-HPV-positive cases (P = .02). Similarly, HR-HPV-positive cases were nine times more likely to have an HSV-2 active infection than HR-HPV-negative cases (P = .03). High HSV-2/h-HPV coinfection rates were observed among women recruited from public gynecology and colposcopy services. The main factors related to an HSV-2 active infection are a history of risky sexual behavior and HR-HPV infection. The prevalence of HSV-2 active infection among positive HR-HPV subjects indicate that these infections constitute an important group of STIs in Mexico.