Can a Genital Herpes Vaccine Protect Against Oral Herpes?

Kenneth Fife, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Indiana University, School of Medicine, discusses whether or not his genital herpes vaccine, GEN-003, can protect against oral herpes.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“HSV-1 causes most oral herpes. HSV-1 and HSV-2 are very similar and those two proteins that are in this vaccine, glycoprotein D and ICP4, share a lot of similarities with HSV-1 and HSV-2. It is plausible that there will be some impact on HSV-1 and an effect on oral herpes, as well. But it has not been studied and until we actually do a study to document that that happens, it’s really difficult to say what might happen. Certainly, HSV-1 and HSV-2 are very similar, and at least in other studies that have looked at immunologic responses to herpes vaccines, you do get responses to both types even though you only have one type of the vaccine.”