Private MD News

Herpes testing can show risk of life-threatening diseases

Category: HIV

When herpes testing has shown that an individual has the virus, that person is then at higher risk of developing a range of other diseases that can be life threatening.

One such disease is Kaposi's Sarcoma, which is a type of cancer caused by the herpes virus, and leads to painful lesions throughout the body.

However, researchers have recently discovered how the herpes virus causes the condition, which experts hope could lead to a cure in the near future.

Adrian Whitehouse, lead researcher for the University of Leeds study, said that they have found a specific protein that the virus uses to replicate. This knowledge could lead to better treatments that target this protein.

"It should be possible to design drugs which block the interaction between [the protein] and the virus, thereby stopping the virus from replicating and hopefully stopping the cancer from developing," he said.

Individuals with HIV and other diseases that compromise the immune system are at a higher risk of catching herpes and developing Kaposi's Sarcoma, according to the American Cancer Society.