Another reason I'm glad I'm married

So I'm watching TV today, and a Valtrex commercial comes on, proclaiming that one in five American adults has genital herpes.

Thinking that's bulls--t, I looked at the CDC site and found the following: "Results of a nationally representative study show that genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, at least 45 million people ages 12 and older, or one out of five adolescents and adults, have had genital HSV infection. ...Genital HSV-2 infection is more common in women (approximately one out of four women) than in men (almost one out of eight)."

Am I the only one who finds these statistics shockingly high, to the point of being unbelievable?

One more reason I'm thrilled to be far removed from the dating game ... yikes.

(And no, Mrs. Lono, I didn't bring back anything from the outing!)

 

That number likely includes HPV, which is a very common type of herpes. Most men are carriers but have no symptoms ever; most women will have it in their lifetimes but will not show symptoms, either. If the HPV vaccine gets into regular rotation, it will drastically reduce those numbers within a generation.

 

I'm glad you didn't get herpes in Seattle, too, lono!!

 

Herpes, the gift that keeps on giving.

Oh, and don't Google herpes images at work. VERY, VERY NSFW. Glad I'm alone on a Saturday.

 

That made me laugh very, very hard.

 

Sorry, Cadet, but HPV is not a form of herpes and, as a matter of fact, is more prevalent than herpes (one in four).

http://www.hpvfaq.com/answers.asp?questionid=12200&answers=1

 

Hmm, not the way I've heard it, but it makes sense. Both are sexually transmitted viruses, however.

 

What's scary is that there are up to 100 known strains of the HPV virus. Unlike herpes, however, many strains eventually leave the body.

 

If you add up all the "1 in 10 people has (disease or infection)" stories we read, it probably turns out that the average person has about 23 afflictions.