Should herpes be considered an STD?

So in my health class a few terms ago one of the big points the teacher was making in one section was that Herpes is no big deal at all. That the stigma of herpes comes from a bunch of television ads in the 1980's that were essentially of pro-abstinence origin trying to scare people with herpes, and this has created this extreme fear of herpes in culture and just saying the word 'herpes' brings up all these terrible thoughts in the majorities of peoples mind. "But really, herpes is not any more serious than strep throat. Its really one of the most benign infections you can get." <-(Im quoting my teacher there who is a research analyst from a hospital).

This has got me thinking for the past few months, would I have sex with someone who has herpes? And should herpes really even be considered an STD in the traditional fashion. Of course it's a sexually transmitted disease on technical terms, but so is the flu technically, so is anything that comes from close contact with someone. What I am saying, should society hold herpes as being something more serious than the flu? Or strep throat? Or any other benign infection that RARELY causes some sort of rash. Because really, technically speaking, it isn't any worse than those things, its just that it comes out on your genitals, and thus its associated with sex and our culture has a big stigma about sex so our culture has turned herpes into a BIG EVIL.

But before you answer that. Consider that most STD tests no longer test for herpes. Yes it's true. You can read alot about it by looking here: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...hrome&ie=UTF-8&q=herpes+not+in+standard+tests

Many hospitals, many clinics, do not test for herpes. For the very reason that they don't see it as something worth investing resources in preventing the spread of because it is so benign

Also they stopped testing because the response people have to diagnoses far outweighs the reality of what it is. People respond to a herpes diagnosis by falling into deep depression for years, suicial, requiring therapy. When theres a 90% chance they will never exhibit a symptom, and if they DO exhibit a symptom its extremely rare it will last for more than a month (like any other bengign infection). The 'chronic' herpes of having lifelong rashes is extremely rare, and I think probably dependent on poor living habits or other health problems of the person, like acne or eczema or any other chronic skin issue. What this means is for the vast majority of people, 'Herpes' is just a word. Not an actual disease. All they do is carry a word with them their whole life. And should someone really be thrust into depression and the need of therapy just because they now carry a word with them? Most clinics and hospitals don't think so, so they no longer test. Most people out there who say "I recently got an STD test and was negative" actually did not get tested for herpes, and may actually have it.

That has of course created some extreme controversy. But really, is the controversy necessary?

Another component of no longer testing for herpes is that SOOO many people have it. The going scientific consensus for a long time was that herpes simplex 1 was the oral sores virus, and simplex 2 was the genital sores virus. But what they've discovered in recent times is, it doesn't so much matter. People are having outbreaks of simplex 1 on their genitals, and people are having outbreaks of simplex 2 on their face. The line between being a 'oral' virus and another being a 'genital' virus is being blurred more and more. Simplex 2 is no longer considered the genital virus, both simplex 1 and simplex 2 are considered the genital virus. This is why CDC.gov lists both herpes simplex 1 and herpes simplex 2 under 'genital herpes' now http://www.cdc.gov/std/herpes/stdfact-herpes.htm

Now 10%-20% of the population carries the herpes 2 virus, but 50%+ of the population carries the herpes 1 virus. One study found 57% of the US population has simplex 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_herpes_simplex#United_States
another study found 98% has simplex 1
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050106111129.htm
So somewhere in between those two is the real number probably.

So over half the population is carrying a virus that can cause an outbreak of herpes on the genitals. Really genital herpes is not just as benign as strep throat, but it's also as prevelant. Although it may be a bit harder to transmit, as it needs actual skin contact.

There is also the other component that, herpes is not very easy to transmit. There have been studies done where they followed around couples where one had herpes, and the other didn't, and then collected statistics on how prevelant the rate of infection was. They found that a woman, being with a man who has herpes and having sex with him for a year gives her a 10% chance of contracting it. While a man having sex with a woman who has herpes for a year gives him a 4% chance of contracting it. This risk is reduced by 30% with the use of condoms. And keep in mind those percentages come from a YEARS worth of sex, not just one night.
http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/giving-your-partner-herpes/

So when using condoms, and having sex with a woman who has herpes, a male has about as much chance of contracting herpes from her as he does getting her pregnant....

With all this information, the question that I have been putting around in my head for the past months, which I would now like to ask the internet, is. Are the hospitals and clinics that no longer test for herpes doing the right thing? Should herpes still be seen as a serious cultural disease to avoid, or should it be forgotten? Should culture no longer care whether or not someone may or may not be a carrier of one of the herpes viruses? I'm personally starting to think it should be forgotten.

And on that same note, would you have sex with someone who has herpes, with no symptons? The chance of making a baby never stopped me from having sex with a girl, and since my chance of getting herpes from her is just about the same, I don't see why that would stop me either... as babies are far more serious than herpes.

 

Well, If It's Not An STD, What In The Bloody Hell Is It Then...



Cheers Glen.

 

Should I be worried about catching herpes whilst grabbing my letters from the mail box?

 

Herpes can be pretty fucking bad.

Poor researcher.

 

sorry but what you are saying is just stupid or you made a troll thread. babies have died from women who have herpes. if you have herpes it can infect your whole pee track and make it so every time you pee it is super painful. herpes causes nasty sores all over your genitals. it is a STD. you can't get herpes just walking around the mall like you can a cold or flu. if you got herpes on your dick or vagina then it happened from sexual contact so that means it is a STD.

and you can get herpes even when using a condom it has happened to plenty of people just like plenty of people who used condoms have gotten pregnant. the statistic is 80% safe. so that means 1 out of 5 people still get a STD even when wearing a condom if they have sex with someone who has a STD.

oh and if someone has oral herpes then it is oral herpes not genital herpes. the person is not gonna wake up one day with herpes on the vagina or dick just cus they got it in their mouth. for example the only way a dick/vagina can get herpes is if that area came in contact with a infected dick/vagina or infected mouth.

 

I Think You Are Quite Safe Grabbing Letters From A Mail

Box, But When You Start Grabbing Letters From A "Male"

Box Then My Advice Would Be Use Extreme Caution...



Cheers Glen.

 

The flu virus is also fatal to infants:
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/13/garden/common-flu-virus-can-kill-newborn.html

Something being fatal to infants does not elevate the level of it's seriousness above the flu virus. Come now, you could of looked that one up yourself.

Also, I am an not IGNORANT to the symptoms of herpes and what it can do in extreme cases. What I am saying is that, symptoms to that degree are extremely rare. Herpes, for most people, is literally nothing. This website says 80% of people who have it are asymptomatic, meaning, no symptoms, not ever once. http://herpes-coldsores.com/asymptomatic_herpes.htm
From 80% of having absolutely no symptoms the scale of severity probably drops down gradually more and more. 10% may have very mild symptoms. 5% have less mild symptoms, 3% have serious symptoms, maybe only 1% have the horror pictures you find on google images.

And people DO get herpes simplex 1 from random skin to skin contact walking around, over half the population has it, some studies show WAY more than half, and herpes simplex 1 does come out on the genitals. This just doesn't seem like a very serious happening because 80% of the people who catch never show a single symptom, 90% of the people never even know they have it because what little symptoms they do have are so minor, they don't even notice. The 90% statistic comes from this site: http://stdtesting.com/how-many-people-have-herpes

And if someone has oral herpes they do sometimes wake up with it on genitals... You can find stories of people transferring oral herpes to their genitals if you type 'herpes simplex 1 on genitals' into google. I do not know the statistics of this. But this website says that 60-70% of genital herpes cases are cause by HSV 2 which means 30-40% are cause by HSV 1 http://dermnetnz.org/viral/genital-herpes.html

And I am well aware you can get herpes when using a condom. In my original post when I said "While a man having sex with a woman who has herpes for a year gives him a 4% chance of contracting it. This risk is reduced by 30% with the use of condoms." which I got from here http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/giving-your-partner-herpes/
I was not saying you cant get herpes with the use of condoms I was saying, exactly what I said, there is a 4% chance of a male partner catching it from a woman and this chance is reduced by 30% with the use of condoms. Meaning a man has a 2.8% chance of catching herpes from a woman, when using condoms, and have sex with her for a whole YEAR.

 

to my knowledge I think herpes 1 and 2 are different. herpes 1 oral or genital is still herpes 1 get what I am saying. if oral herpes type 1 is spread to the genitals then it is genital herpes type 1. get what I am saying

 

herpies is a catch all for more different kinds of things then medical science has the slightest idea. many of them ARE transmitted by intimate personal contact, so, yes, it CAN be an std. it just isn't always. and it isn't just any one thing.

 

I apologize for not reading the whole OP.

HIV can also be transmitted by non-sexual means (child birth, needle-sharing, etc.). It can also be lived with with the aid of cocktails pretty normally, and in some rare cases, without any medical intervention whatsoever.

I think the larger question is valid, however. I also feel there is stigma associated with STDs. STDs are no different than any other disease.

There are mild STDs, curable STDs, asymptomatic STDs, etc. I have seen it many times where people say, "OMG, if you sleep around you're going to catch an STD" as though it was the proverbial end of the world and an absolute certainty. First of all there are only six known STDs, not an infinite amount like uninformed people seem to think.

There are only two STDs you may contract with a condom, and they are widespread, mostly asymptomatic to mild, and those are herpes and HPV. And yes, they are largely contracted by non-sexual means.

A single instance of casual sex without a condom is statistically unlikely to give you an STD. I think I have read you would have to have 200 partners on average before coming into contact with somone who has HIV. And even if you had unprotected sex with an infected partner, your chances of contracting it from a single instance of it is 20%. HIV is still, in spite of all the hysteria, no different than say, incurable cancer.

Yes, herpes and HPV can be bad, but so can an ear infection. I just think the label STDs gives prudes a great excuse to feel self-important. A feeling they may not have much recourse to in their daily lives.

 

I see what you did there

 

no longer testing for herpes?...where the fuck do they not test for herpes?...where i live they wouldnt tell you you have a life long condition without testing first

paste
Herpes Testing

If you have noticed symptoms that could be caused by the herpes virus you should visit your Doctor as soon as possible, while symptoms are still present.

Your Doctor will examine your condition and should take a swab or sample of the infected tissue. This can be analyzed for herpes.

There are several tests that are used to diagnose herpes, some are more accurate then others.

Methods of testing include diagnosis by:

Viral Culture

Serologic tests (Blood tests)

Antigen Tests

 

People can die from Strep infections and if not treated properly the virus hibernates and can come back years later and cause lots of different organ damage. My brother is having serious heart issues that they traced back to a strep infection that wasn't treated properly.

"no more serious than strep...."
What a moron, I would immediately stop listening to anything that idiot has to say.

 

no reason to personally attack and call the dude names......''no more serious'' is the same exact thing as ''just as serious''...

 

That is the STUPIDEST question I think has ever been asked on these forums. And that is including EVERYTHING in Love and Sex.

Can you get herpes by having sex? Is it a sexually transmitted disease? It's not rocket science. But don't worry, there's probably a robot out there who can answer this question for you better.

 

I would consider it a STD.

As far as having a relationship with someone who had it, I would want to know going into it that it was a factor. If I cared about someone I would then proceed by taking all the precautions necessary to protect my self.

I would not with hold medical information from someone I cared about or wanted to have a relationship with and I would expect the same in return.

If I was not told and found out at a later date or was exposed to it because they did not tell me, I might just want to slap him silly.

 

My first thought after reading the OP was that the speaker has herpes and is trying to downplay it.

And "oral herpes" is a misnomer. You can spread it to your eyes, nose, or even your arm if you have broken skin there. And genitals. So keep your hands clean and off your cold sores.

 

How can you compare strep to herpes??? The teacher op was talking about should be fired. Herpes = for life. Meaning its there forever. Whether you are showing symptoms or not, you can spread a life long BAD DEAL to anyone you have sex with.......for the rest of your life. I'd take strep throat any day

 

I agree, lots of people have clod sores. I don't, but I'm not going to point and laugh at someone who does.