Ah, sexually transmitted infections. The modern scarlet letter. “Stay away!” we cry. Particularly if it’s herpes. Oh, religious deity, forbid it be herpes.

For many, STIs exist on an intangible parallel plane. This or that promiscuous so-and-so might have had it coming, but we’d like to think we’re far removed from that plane of existence. STIs are seen as “dirty,” a blight upon whoever might have them. We dread joining their ranks.

In truth, however, STIs are as ubiquitous as bedbugs in New York. And like bedbugs, STIs are often more discomfiting than necessarily nefarious. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly all sexually active adults will contract some strain of HPV at some point, but the body magics away most HPV infections.

This unfortunately isn’t quite the case with herpes, the second-most-common medically incurable STI. One in six people in the United States — 50 million people, y’all — have genital herpes, or HSV-2, and somewhere between 60 and 80 percent have oral herpes, or HSV-1, also called canker sores. Although there is no cure for either strain, both can be treated and their symptoms vastly ameliorated. And for the more notorious HSV-2, besides the occasional flare-up — which can lie dormant for years, in any case — there doesn’t seem to be any larger health issues. No complications with the female reproductive tract, no internal damage, no cancer.

Despite HSV-2’s commonness and relative harmlessness, it is still surrounded by social stigma second only to HIV, according to a 2007 Harris Interactive Poll. Not to cast HIV as some sort of extreme (modern medicine can help the HIV-positive live long lives full of salacious sex if they like), but herpes? C’mon. It’s like slightly misplaced acne.

Let’s start by asking you, the reader: Would you call a relationship off if your potential or current partner told you he or she had herpes? In the Harris poll, most respondents without HSV-2 said they would either avoid partners with herpes or end things with their partner if they were told he or she had herpes. That’s indiscriminately voting one out of every sixth potential mate out for something that doesn’t cause any problems and that doesn’t need to be passed on if you practice safer sex. For groups with one herpes-positive partner and one not, paying attention to breakouts and always using condoms and/or antiviral medications can cut your rate transmission down to 1 to 2 percent per year of regular sex — pretty minuscule, if you ask me.

The most alarming statistic in my eyes is that an estimated 80 percent of people with herpes don’t even know they have it. Yeah, we’ve talked about how herpes isn’t that bad. But the larger issue behind this stat — besides not possessing the ability to be open with your partner or practicing safer sex — is the fact that these people probably aren’t getting tested for other entirely curable — but more dangerous — STIs such as chlamydia, trichomoniasis, gonorrhea and syphilis, either. This convenient forgetfulness or ignorance about our own susceptibility to STIs could potentially be what damns us. We sexually active folk are likely all exposed to STIs at some point in time, so why do we evade the issue?

Chlamydia, trich, gonorrhea (the “clap”) and syphilis are all bacterial, so you can be rid of them for good with treatment. Left alone, however, they can have devastating effects in the long run, although they might not manifest any symptoms in the short run. Chlamydia — the most commonly reported STI — and gonorrhea can cause infertility if left untreated. Scary syphilis, if not caught early on, can cause damage to the brain, heart and nervous system and possibly even lead to death.

If you’re sexually active, whatever sex you identify as, the CDC recommend getting tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV once a year. The Tang Center covers an annual checkup for chlamydia, the clap, HIV and Pap smears (the last recommended to be administered every three years for women above the age of 21). Other STIs, such as trich, syphilis and herpes, aren’t generally tested for unless you feel you have been exposed to them or display symptoms, but you can ask for these screenings at either the Tang Center or Planned Parenthood.

Stigma won’t go down without a fight, unfortunately, but perhaps talking about it and dispelling falsehoods will help combat it. Hopefully with more openness and knowledge will come more testing, acceptance, treatment and discussion. It’s better to play it safe and get routinely checked, so if necessary, you can plan ahead or get treated accordingly — but remember, it’s not an end-all if you contract something. Life and sex go on. A tour guide and actor at Kink.com once told a classmate of mine about the first thing a colleague told him when he discovered he had herpes: “Welcome to the club.” You won’t be alone.

Vi Nguyen writes the weekly Sex on Tuesday column. You can contact her at sex@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter: @yonictonic.

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The study, which was published in the European Journal of Health Economics, involved conducting a randomized survey among men who have sex with men — or MSM — and male sex workers — or MSW — in Mexico City and determined that in exchange for payments of $288 to MSM and $156 to MSW, subjects would agree to be tested regularly and enroll in awareness programs, thereby reducing HIV and STI prevalence.

According Sandra McCoy, an assistant adjunct professor in UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health whose work deals with HIV, the study is important because it shows paying a small cash amount could have a big impact on sexual health.

“It’s a reward for using condoms or not sharing needles … so (individuals) are conscious about behaviors,” said co-author Paul Gertler, Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics and a professor of public health.

The study also found that wealthier individuals and those with higher levels of education were less likely to respond to the cash incentive because wealthier people are much more likely to have paid for testing themselves, Gertler explained.

“The incentive needs to be high enough to potentially spur meaningful behavior change, but it cannot be too high as to be considered coercive, dangerous or economically inefficient,” the study said.

In Mexico City and Latin America, the HIV epidemic is largely confined to risk populations of MSM, MSW and intravenous drug users. This study is the first of its kind among MSM and MSW subjects, McCoy said, though studies that used cash rewards as a means of reducing the prevalence of HIV have been conducted in Tanzania and Kenya.

According to the study, the Mexican government currently offers universal HIV therapy.

Regarding implementation of the study’s findings, the first step would be to work with public health clinics that offer testing services and provide a cash payment to people who come in to be tested, giving a higher payment as a reward for staying HIV- or STI-free, Gertler said.

An HIV- and STI-free cash reward program for Mexico is feasible, as Gertler said the country already utilizes cash transfers for human development and poverty reduction, such as a cash pension program for people older than 70.

Contact Christine Tyler at ctyler@dailycal.org.

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When you hear that word “marathon,” there are probably an assortment of images that run through your head. You might be thinking of a grueling 26.2-mile run that makes you want to hug the toilet for the rest of the week. Or you could be thinking of a movie marathon, like the time you watched the three extended versions of the “Lord of The Rings” movies back-to-back for nine hours and then had laser eye surgery so you could see again. But while these marathons leave you physically damaged, there is one marathon that is both lots of fun and does lots of good.

On April 5 and 6, Berkeley Dance Marathon will be holding its annual — you guessed it — dance marathon. The idea is simple: form a team, dance for 12 hours and raise money to help stop pediatric AIDS. That’s right, it’s dancing for a cause! A cause good enough to take a break from studying and join our community in supporting the fight against HIV.

Now, I know some of us don’t have the greatest dancing skills, but don’t let that discount you from joining in the fun! We have five simple dance moves for you to try out if you decide to take part in this fun and quirky event:

1. The robot

Such a simple concept with such gratifying results! Just act like a robot. Move your arms around in stiff, jolting movements, and even add in a few sound effects if you want. The great thing is most people know this move, so even if you totally butcher it, they’ll get the idea.

2. The running man

This one may be a little tricky for some people, but it’s still totally doable with some practice. And you will look totally cool if you bust this move out.

3. The shopping cart

Pretend you are grocery shopping. Walk with some style while pushing an imaginary shopping cart, grab items off of imaginary shelves and put them in your basket. Instant creativity … and probably a few laughs from people watching you.

4. The swim  

Another classic dance move: Wiggle those arms, plug that nose and pretend to be in water! It doesn’t take any particular skills to pretend you’re swimming, so this one should be pretty foolproof.

5. The step-clap

This is the easiest dance move in the history of dance moves (and totally self-explanatory). You step to the side, clap and repeat. You can add as much rhythm as you’d like, but as long as you’re moving and clapping, we consider this dancing. This one goes out to all of you especially uncoordinated people. We’re here for you.

Now that your dance moves are set, form a team, get some silly costumes, plan your moves, register and prepare to raise money while having a great time with fellow students.

Contact Kamin Kahrizi at kkahrizi@dailycal.org and Kristen McFadden at kmcfadden@dailycal.org.

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Wayne Getz/Courtesy

A new study co-authored by UC Berkeley researchers has found that the rate of HIV transmission due to infidelity is higher than previously thought.

The study, published Feb. 5 in the medical journal The Lancet, determined that HIV is usually passed from men to women. Additionally, researchers found that men are most likely to be infected from infidelity while women are more likely to be infected before entering a stable partnership. This discrepancy may be due to the fact that younger women tend to be involved with older men, who have likely had more sexual partners and therefore more exposure to sexually transmitted infections.

The study was conducted by postdoctoral researcher Steve Bellan, then a doctoral student in environmental science policy and management, and professor Wayne Getz in the campus College of Natural Resources. The study examined the differences between transmission among single people compared to that of cohabiting partners. They hope their findings can be used to better target and treat HIV.

“If you ask people if they are having sex outside their partnership, there are various reasons to not give an honest answer as you can imagine,” Getz said. “(Those surveyed) underreport quite dramatically the rate they have extra-couple kinships.”

“We looked at the proportion who were infected within the partnership, we looked at the background rate in populations and we looked at how long couples had been in a relationship,” Getz said. “Then we used a mathematical model to estimate if they were infected outside of the relationship.”

The study found that out-of-couple sex accounted for 27 to 61 percent of all HIV transmissions in men and 21 to 51 percent in women.

“21 and 50 percent may seem broad to some,” Getz said. “The likely value is somewhere in (the middle of) that range, but as scientists we have to be conservative.”

Due to the study’s findings, the researchers say they believe that HIV prevention should be targeted at just the overall sexually active population and not only those in serodiscordant couples — that is, those in which one partner is infected and the other is not.

“Some researchers have called that anyone with HIV go on treatment immediately to protect their partner even if they’re not sick yet,” Bellan said. “Our results show that’s necessary because there’s a lot of transmission going on,”

Jonathan Dushoff, a biology professor at McMaster University and co-author of the study, said that some studies in the past have overestimated within-couple infection.

“The main contribution of the report is to carefully quantify the proportion of transmission that comes through different routes,” he said in an email. “We found that pre-, within- and extra- were all important.”

Contact Ally Rondoni at arondoni@dailycal.org.

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Brenna Alexander/Staff

For over 20 years, UC Berkeley professor Peter Duesberg has believed that HIV does not cause AIDS, an opinion that he says has limited his academic career and alienated him from the scientific community.

“You cannot find the (HIV) virus, only antibodies, and it doesn’t spread via sex as it should,” Duesberg said. “HIV is a harmless virus. I have said that before, and I continue to say it.”

The tenured professor of molecular and cell biology — who said he has been called “homophobic” and a “mass murderer” in the past for his beliefs — elicited further controversy after the publication of his most recent article in a scientific journal sparked the resignation of a member of the journal’s editorial board.

Near the end of January, Klaudia Brix of Jacobs University in Germany resigned from the board of the Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology in protest of the December publication of Duesberg’s article, entitled “AIDS since 1984: No evidence for a new, viral epidemic — not even in Africa.”

“It’s just propaganda that they’re dying from AIDS,” Duesberg said.

The article compares statistical evidence of AIDS deaths in Uganda and South Africa to the overall population growth of those countries and sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. The article then concludes that AIDS has not caused a large number of deaths in Africa.

“We deduce from this demographic evidence that HIV is not a new killer virus,” the article states.

However, Arthur Reingold, professor of epidemiology and associate dean for research at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said that HIV is the cause of AIDS.

“It is a well-established scientific fact going back 30 years,” Reingold said. “Every credible scientist in the world believes that to be a scientific fact.”

Three years after the announcement of the discovery of the AIDS virus in 1984, Duesberg published an article denying that HIV is the cause of AIDS.

He has since argued that AIDS results from recreational drug use and has advised those with the disease not to take antiretroviral drugs.

“I tell people, by all means, stop taking these drugs — they haven’t cured anybody yet,” Duesberg said.

In 2000, Duesberg sat on a panel which advised then-President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki about the cause of the AIDS virus. Mbeki later denied that AIDS was caused by a virus and limited the treatments in the country, leading to about 330,000 deaths, according to a study published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Other AIDS researchers rebuke Duesberg’s arguments as the spread of misinformation.

“People who deny the causality of AIDS are denying reality,” said Jeff Sheehy, director for communications at the UC San Francisco AIDS Research Institute, in an email. “I know individuals infected with HIV who are dead because they believed denialists and … initiated treatment too late to save their lives.”

Although Duesberg’s research has largely been restricted to small journals, he has published over 20 articles, three of those in Science, and a book on the virus, according to his website.

However, an article he authored was retracted from the Medical Hypothesis Journal in 2009 due to its inclusion of “opinions that could potentially be damaging to global public health,” a statement from the journal said. The article led to a campus investigation of Duesberg that was dropped a year later.

Despite this exposure, Duesberg said his beliefs have limited his academic career on campus. He has been teaching a laboratory course since 1987 and claims he was restricted by other faculty from giving a lecture for more than 20 years.

“I never got to teach a course in my field until recently,” Duesberg said, referring to the lecturing position he was given in the fall semester of 2009.  “My colleagues didn’t trust me.”

G. Steven Martin, chair of the campus department of molecular and cell biology, declined to comment on Duesberg’s role in the department.

Despite overwhelming opposition, Duesberg — who first won acclaim as co-discoverer of the first viral cancer gene and for mapping the genetic structure of retroviruses — does claim to have had some success in his research on AIDS.

“I get tons of letters saying ‘thank you, your research has changed my life,’” he said.

Going forward, Duesberg plans to pursue cancer research, lessening his focus on AIDS.

“You try to make your case as good you can, and I think I’ve done that,” he said. “I have said what I can say — I don’t think I can do too much more.”

Franklin Krbechek covers research and ideas.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Arthur Reingold, professor and associate dean on campus, said that Professor Peter Duesberg’s beliefs run counter to a core tenet held by the medical community. In fact, he only commented on the connection between HIV and AIDS and did not mention Duesberg specifically.

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