Preventing Outbreaks of Genital Herpes
People with genital herpes fall into two broad categories: Those who have outbreaks and those that do not. Interestingly, probably 90% of people with genital herpes infections remain undiagnosed. This is probably because most of them have very few symptoms, though Wald et al showed recently that most people who have genital herpes do have symptoms that, if they were trained to look for them, might lead them to think that they might have an infection. These symptoms include skin redness, itching, burning, tingling, vaginal discharges that were thought to be yeast infections, leg pain, and so on. So, the “great 90%” of undiagnosed patients probably often have some symptoms, but they are rarely aware of them. Thus, this 90% of people can continue to spread genital herpes through intimate relations to unsuspecting partners.
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