Herpes Epidemic Rise
“Oral herpes, an infection caused by the herpes simplex virus, is estimated to be present in 50 to 80 percent of the American adult population. 20 percent, over 50 million people, are infected with genital herpes, also caused by the herpes simplex virus, and the majority of these cases may be unaware they even have it. Studies show that more than 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with genital herpes each year, and the largest increase is occurring in young teens.
There is no cure for herpes to date. Efforts to develop a herpes vaccine by biotechnology companies are ongoing. Until an effective herpes vaccine or cure for HSV infection is found, the prevailing approach to treatment continues to be suppressive antiviral therapy. ” — http://herpes.com/
Have you asked your doctor for a herpes test lately? You should. Just so that you know what you are dealing with. No one is a bad person for having it, stuff happens. Once upon a time a really wonderful woman told me that she had herpes and I reacted very negatively. I pretty much shunned further sexual contact with her because I was ignorant and judgmental and really I was just a bitch. I should not have been. It was totally inappropriate. I would like to believe I have grown up a bit in the last few years. HSV in either form is not the end of the world. It isn’t fun, but it can be handled. I really wish that everyone would get tested so that there would be less stigma attached to it because the statistics indicate that more people have it than are aware of it. If you know that you have it, find out as much about it as you can (www.cdc.gov is only marginally helpful on this one.) There is actually a pretty good paper that is linked to from: http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/thread/9f4c52a8-d6a8-4a14-9e26-4a9964117426?tribeid=3acd1a3d-6988-4bbb-aefa-c6d8ab098454&r=10535 and I recommend reading it. I liked the paper.
You aren’t dirty or bad if you get it. You are just a person. It’s just a virus. It is no reflection on who you are as a person.
Play safe.
Thanks. And they are working on a vaccine. It’s in human trials at this point.
I only found out that I have HSV1 because I worked hard to get tested, including having to provide my doctor with information on how to test for herpes without a lesion.
Like lots and lots of folks who are infected, I’ve never had an outbreak.
Last year, I had sex with someone with HSV2. It was incredibly important to *me* to get tested for it so that I could know that if I later got HSV2, that I didn’t get it from that person. I think people who know that they have herpes get stigmatized, while those people who don’t know it (a) are at higher risk for spreading it (most likely due to asymptomatic viral shedding) and (b) not experiencing stigma that the folks who are know and disclose their HSV status. Not fair. Not good for any of us. I prefer honesty to ignorance, and would rather reward integrity (telling me about your STIs) than fear (avoidance of testing).
HSV
The problem with testing is that it can’t tell you where you have herpes (oral or genital). Unless you have very obvious symptoms – and there are other kinds of mouth sores you can get that aren’t HSV so even then it’s hard to tell.
The Planned Parenthood I used to get STD screenings started offerring HSV2 tests shortly before I stopped being able to use them due to insurance – but only if you asked for it. I asked, the last time I was there, so I now know that I don’t have HSV2. I’ve never had an HSV1 test but have always assumed that I probably have it orally, and that so do most of my partners. I believe the 80% end of that statistic, for adults, so I always assume people have oral HSV1 unless there is definite evidence otherwise.
I wish that, socially, people treated genital and oral herpes the same way. There’s no reason for genital herpes to have such a stigma, while oral herpes is shrugged off and ignored. Really, they both mostly deserve to be shrugged off. Except in the rarest of cases, neither is a serious health threat. They’re both merely annoying. And oddly, the most serious (but very rare) medical risk from HSV, comes from oral not genital infection. For example, it can cause blindness if you get an outbreak on your eye.
I have had a girlfriend with genital herpes. She was really scared to say anything about it at first, and it almost resulted in us never hooking up in the first place. She evaded my invitations to spend the night and told me she really wanted to and but there was a reason she couldn’t and she couldn’t tell me why (until another girl I was sleeping with at the time got her to talk, and reassured her that she could just tell me and it wouldn’t be a big deal). We were scrupulously safe about it but still managed to have a great time together.
There are some interesting interactions between the four kinds of HSV infections, that are worth learning about. Basically, any HSV infection confers some resistance against another one, and when a virus infects its non-preferred site there are usually no symptoms. So:
Based on your priorities and how you view the tradeoffs, you may actually want a non-preferred-site infection.
Re: HSV
Oh, I should also add: That Planned Parenthood only offerred HSV2 testing, not HSV1. Both of these tests are very new, they’ve only been around for like three years. Before that, there was just an HSV test, that didn’t do a good job telling the two kinds apart. The reason they didn’t offer the HSV1 test is the same reason they never offerred the older test: it’s considered basically useless. Since most people have HSV1, a test that just tells you you have it, but doesn’t tell you where, is a waste of time and money.
In another email conversation, I just received these two links:
http://www.ashastd.org/pdfs/blood_test.pdf
http://www.bayareafriends.org/links_&_info.htm