Everything You Know About Herpes is Wrong!

Chances are some have tried a few home remedies during their life to get rid of a nasty cold or a persistent condition. While some could have had a rare moment of shining success, these types of treatments don’t often prove very helpful.

The field of medicine is always growing as researching surrounding the body and the organic world continues to expand.

As we learn more about the body and how it works, we also learn more about the best ways to treat it, and, hopefully, dispel some of the rumors we’ve collected along the way. One of the diseases that’s still grossly misunderstood in our society is herpes.

The stigma surrounding herpes

There’s a good reason for why herpes is still misunderstood, and there’s an enormous and persistent stigma surrounding the disease. Herpes is a sexually transmitted infection or STI. Traditionally, there is a lot of shame and guilt surrounding sexual behavior, especially when it comes to infections contracted through sex. Because of this, the stigma surrounding herpes is pervasive. People are unwilling to discuss herpes, even in a theoretical sense, because it’s seen as a shameful disease to contract. While dealing with herpes is certainly not a positive experience, it is a reality that many individuals live with, and therefore we should be more open to discussing the signs, symptoms, and methods of preventing the disease.

Common rumors

Because of the stigma surrounding herpes there are many different rumors about the disease. For example, some people claim that you can get herpes just from touching a surface that an infected individual has touched. This is not true, herpes can’t be transmitted through something like a doorknob or car door handle. Additionally, many people think that cold sores caused by HSV-1 are completely different from the genital sores caused by HSV-2. While the conditions may be visible in different ways, they are actually manifestations of the same underlying virus. Additionally, many people don’t know that you can actually be infected with the herpes virus but not actually have any sores or demonstrate any symptoms. Some individuals may be host to the disease or carry it for years without even knowing it.

Here are the facts

One of the most startling facts about herpes is the volume of individuals who live with the virus. Researchers estimate that around 3.7 billion people in the world are infected with the herpes virus, but approximately 87% of those individuals have no idea. The principle from this number is that lots of different people can and do get infected with the herpes virus. Additionally, there are actually eight different strains of the herpes virus. Only two of the strains are transmitted sexually, the other six are transmitted through different means. The two types of herpes that are transmitted sexually, HSV-1 and HSV-2 may cause either through cold sores around the mouth or through sores around the genitals. Both forms of the virus can be transmitted sexually, although HSV-1 an also be transmitted through other means such as sharing a glass with an infected individual.