The Unknowing Spread of Herpes

Thanks HealthGal!  Interesting study, and useful information about birth control possibly increasing the risk of HSV infection.  

Have they done a study like this with men?  Since everyone can have asymptomatic viral shedding, I think it's a shame the article essentially blames "young women" for unknowingly spreading herpes, when really "young people" would be more appropriate.    

   I certainly don't agree with healthgal that there is any such thing as an "epidemic."

First of all, there is a tremendous amount of both misinformation and hysterics pertaining to herpes.

   Lets look at the facts...1) if you have no symptoms and you have no difficulty with the virus, then what is the problem? Yeah, you may be a carrier, but so what?

  2) Yes it is contagious, but what are the common symptoms? Basically you get cold sores and you may be uncomfortable.  However, unless you touch the eyes, and get an infection in you eyes, there are really not a whole heck of a lot of serious long range side effects.

  3) According to all the available studies, you can pass HSV-1 to the genital area and

vice versa with HSV-2--it can be passed to the mouth and face.  They are both the same, but it is where they prefer to dwell which is the main difference.

  4) With respect to herpes HSV-1, you can obtain a Sexually Transmitted Disease by

kissing a baby or your Aunt or your Grandfather or Father or Mother etc.  You can also do the same with a cold.  A cold can matriculate into bronchitis or pneumonia or worse.

Does that mean that we should not be allowed to kiss one another because we cannot

afford to take a chance to "catch a cold?"

   I think we need to rethink this "epidemic hysteria," since we are on the verge of doing more harm than good.

   Herpes is a big inconvenience and in my opinion--until there is more research and we understand it better, not anything to loose a lot of sleep over.  To those of you that have genital herpes, I'm sorry, I wish you well, but you really need to get on with your life.  It is by no means a death sentence and I could think of many many things a lot worse than herpes--and if you put your mind to it, you can too.