“Outside of abstinence, there’s really no sure way to prevent the transmission of it, unless you’re doing solo play or you’re really aware of your body and have taken Valtrex before,” Hernandez- Kline told XBIZ.
Valtrex is a brand name for valacyclovir HCI, a medication prescribed to suppress outbreaks of Herpes Simplex I and II.
“But for those individuals that don’t have herpes, it can help lower or suppress the virus enough so that if people come in contact, they’ve got a medication that would theoretically reduce the chances of a herpes outbreak or transmission,” Hernandez-Kline said.
Industry members who would like to be given a prescription can go to the Van Nuys AIM clinic and, if they have already been seen for other testing, request a prescription, which Hernandez-Kline will issue for them without a scheduled doctor’s visit. Prescriptions cost approximately $150 a month.
“I would prefer that they see me, but to keep costs low for them, since Valtrex can be a little pricey — I think it would be better for them to have something onboard,” he said.
“I think that anyone in the industry should think about being on Valtrex for six months to a year, or however long they feel it’s necessary to suppress an outbreak,” Kline added. “There’s a limited number of studies that indicate that it may have a protective benefit. But in theory, in this population, it just makes sense [to be on Valtrex].”
Kline also recommends that sexually active industry members, female and male, be vaccinated for HPV, or human papillomavirus. Seventy percent of cervical cancer is linked to exposure to HPV.
While the vaccine is best administered to subjects prior to becoming sexually active and usually recommended for females between the ages of 9 and 26, Kline feels that industry members would benefit from being vaccinated at any age.
“There’s actually a number of strains of HPV that affect the genital tissue. The vaccines cover four strains; two of the highest risk and two of the lowest risk. The high risk ones are the nonvisible warts that people don’t see and those are the ones that cause cervical cancer in women,” Kline explained.
“In a study, they looked at about 30,000 women and of the women that had some type of HPV infection, they would generally have one of the strains. But very few had more than one, so it still makes sense to vaccinate; in the event that you haven’t been exposed, the vaccines would still be effective,” Kline added.
For men, Kline said that though the risk for cancer is low, they should be vaccinated in order to avoid giving the virus to their sex partners.
Gardasil is the brand name for the HPV vaccine and a series of three injections costs $450. Industry members can be put on an accelerated schedule of shots, administered over a four-month period. Typically, the regular schedule for vaccination can take between six months and a year.
