Historical findings in subjects from a high socioeconomic group who have genital infections with herpes simplex virus.

A highly motivated, self-selected group of 1,535 men and 1,607 women of middle-to-high socioeconomic class who had recurring genital herpes were surveyed in an assessment of the historical characteristics of these subjects and their disease. All subjects lived in the continental United States and were members of the national herpes organization, HELP, sponsored by the American Social Health Association. Subjects were predominantly well-educated white persons (mean educational level, 15.2 years) earning > $20,000 per year. The mean ages of acquisition of genital herpes were 26.9 years for women and 30.8 years for men. The mean durations of infection were 3.9 years for women and 5.1 years for men. Women usually acquired genital herpes between the ages of 20 and 29 years, whereas substantial numbers of men experienced their initial episodes of infection when they were in their thirties. The population studied was predominantly heterosexual. Many of the subjects, especially the men, had experienced other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonococcal or nongonococcal urethritis. Over two-thirds of the subjects experienced more than five relapses every year, and the percentage of subjects with more than five recurrences yearly did not decrease with time.

Profile of callers to the VD National Hotline.

Information concerning callers to the VD (venereal disease) National Hotline was gleaned from study of a sample consisting of the records of 3,272 callers; various demographic, epidemiologic, and individual perceptions of infection or exposure to disease were analyzed. These data were compared with data from the sentinel clinics for sexually transmissible diseases. Analysis showed that 62.5% of sample Hotline callers were male and 37.5% were female, a distribution similar to that of diagnosed clinic patients (69.7% male, 30.3% female). Of male callers, 57.1+ were greater than or equal to 25 years old and 38.2% of female callers had attained this age, whereas 44.4% of male patients and 43.3% of female patients were 25 years or older. Disease concerns of Hotline callers were focused on genital herpes and syphilis; however, among clinic patients, more cases of gonorrhea and nongonococcal urethritis were diagnosed. Thirty-four and one-half percent of callers indicated that they believed they were either infected with or exposed to VD, and 45.4% of callers accepted referrals to clinics for medical evaluation. There percentages remained constant, irrespective of how callers heard about Hotline services; this fact leads to further questions concerning the most effective methods of alerting and educating the public in regard to venereal disease.