herpes vaccine: visit 0

[jinian]

I answered an ad that I've seen around town on buses and in our local alternative weekly for a herpes vaccine study in young women^*. I've never had any symptoms of oral or genital herpes, even though my mother has cold sores all the time. A couple of weeks ago I went in for a free screening (Western Blot); little did I know they were giving out twenty dollars for it too. In my mind, finding out one's viral status is plenty of compensation for three tubes of blood, but I guess they get more participants if they pay people for the inconvenience of going to the office.

When the study coordinator called to give me the results, she wasn't sure if I'd want to continue in the study, so I guess it's not enough money for some people. They still get useful data if you don't: one arm of the study is trying to correlate genetic markers with presumed resistance to the virus. Once you prove yourself a blank viral slate (and not pregnant or ill), though, the payment goes up to forty dollars a visit.

Of course I did want to continue in the study, because apparently herpes-free people are pretty uncommon. My participant number is 928, which I assume is just for Seattle, but that's still not a huge number of people. It's possible I won't be able to give blood after this, since there's some tiny amount of bovine-derived stuff in the vaccine-making process, but I figure there are more people with A+ blood than are herpes-free, so this is more useful.

Anyway. I had to drink a couple of big glasses of water for the pregnancy pee test, since I'd spaced out and used the restroom before going in. The PA (whose 30-year certification is expiring this year) looked me over and praised my ability to shove all the air out of my lungs so he could feel up my liver. Blood was drawn. And I got a shot, the first of three, either herpes vaccine or hepatitis A control vaccine, their computer only knows which.

My arm is sore. No other effects so far.

^* They seem to have become less picky than this. My long-term relationship of probable negative herpes status was no problem.

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Also, it was a beautiful very warm day, and the libraries are open again.

Comments

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Huh. Too bad the vacine doesn't work on men. I had a test recently, still negative for everything including herpes.

[jeliza]

I'm so glad you're doing this -- I went in for in the initial screening, but turned out positive for oral herpes.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

Herpes free people are pretty uncommon?

I find that immensely disturbing.

that's why we need a vaccine!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

It's not as if you wouldn't meet any walking down the street, but the statistics seem to say that there are considerably more people with my blood type than with no herpes. What I usually see is "about 80 percent of adults with type 1, and 25 percent of adult women with type 2" (http://www.globalherbalsupplies.com/herpes/stats.html) -- there's some overlap, obviously, but clearly most people have some kind of herpes.

When you narrow it down to the study parameters, with the weird vaccine which works only in women, I definitely feel more useful as a study participant.