A pilot study of the prevalence of herpes genitalis among selected groups of patients seeking care in a family practice center.

Abstract

Herpes genitalis is typically studied in patient panels identified at specialized sexually transmitted disease clinics or with information obtained from herpes self-help groups. This article reports the results of a descriptive pilot study of the prevalence of herpes genitalis in family practice. The feasibility of obtaining psychosexual information on sexually transmitted diseases from more than 600 patients from five family practice practices was assessed. These initial data show that in the family practices participating in this study: 1) genital herpes is a low prevalence disease; 2) psychosocial adjustment to the disease among infected persons is usually reported as good, apart from sexual effects; and 3) close to 30% of the study population reported having prior sexually transmitted diseases. Problems involved in generalizing the results of this research and the limitations of conducting collaborative clinical research in family practice settings are reviewed.