Seroepidemiological study of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection in transgender women in Goiás

Introduction: Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) causes lesions in the orolabial and anogenital region that last for a lifetime. Data show that about 491.5 million people live with HSV-2. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological profile of HSV-2 infection in a population of transgender women in Goiânia-GO and cities in the interior of the state. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that estimates the prevalence of HSV-2 in transgender women residing or in transit in the metropolitan region of Goiânia and cities in the interior of the state. The Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) method was used for recruitment (sample size), the prevalence of HSV-2 was assessed by enzyme immunoassay. Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The database was analyzed to generate an adjusted prevalence of the characteristics of the study population. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal de Goiás. Results: The prevalence was 8.2% (95% CI 5.0-12.2) for anti-HSV-2 IgM and 70.0% (95% CI 63.0-77.3) for anti-HSV-2 IgG; the bivariate analysis showed an association between positivity by IgG HSV-2 and age >30 years (p<0.0001), exchange of sex for money/drugs or consumer goods (p=0.002), more than 20 sexual partnerships in the past 7 days (p=0.001), and insertive anal sex (p=0.011); in the multivariate analysis, age ≥30 years (p=0.001) and more than 20 sexual partnerships in the past 7 days (p=0.008) were shown statistically related to HSV-2 infection. Conclusion: The data showed a high seroprevalence of HSV-2 among transgender women in the state of Goiás, indicating the need to develop public policies aimed at sexual education and improve this population’s health conditions.