5 ms·

"The stigma against" is exclusively a US bound thing. I consume a lot of media (Plus memes) from the US, and people make a real fuss about it. In my country pe

by ericol 8y ago

"The stigma against" is exclusively a US bound thing. I consume a lot of media (Plus memes) from the US, and people make a real fuss about it. In my country people give it the same importance as a simple cold.

newnewpdro 8y ago
Judging from the content on the linked wikipedia page for Herpes Simplex it strikes me as absurd that one would categorize it with the simple cold.
- bootlooped 8y ago
  Although it's not curable, there are a lot of good, cheap treatments available, and many people can go long periods of time with no symptoms. Consider the line from the Wikipedia page: "Worldwide rates of either HSV-1 or HSV-2 are between 60% and 95% in adults." If infection rates are that high, it's probably not that big of a deal for most people.
  - dpark 8y ago
    Most of that 60-95% is oral, though. Genital infection rates are far lower, at <20% in the US.
  - burfog 8y ago
    It's also associated with Alzheimer's disease, which is a horrible way to die. It can cause blindness and death, particularly in newborns. I don't think it wise to dismiss herpes as just something mild or inevitable.
    - philwelch 8y ago
      Gingivitis is associated with Alzheimer's disease, too.
- rjurney 8y ago
  Everyone gets it. It just goes away, often for years. There's no cure. Like colds.
  - dpark 8y ago
    > There's no cure. Like colds. Colds resolve in a few days to a week. There is absolutely a cure, just not one in pill form.
    - philwelch 8y ago
      Most HSV outbreaks also resolve in a few days to a week, and either never recur at all or recur extremely infrequently.
      - dpark 8y ago
        The outbreak resolves. The infection does not. And recurrence of HSV is quite common.
  - burfog 8y ago
    No, almost 40% of us do not get it. This is not something inevitable. I don't have any family member with the symptoms.
    - icedchai 8y ago
      You realize most people don't get any symptoms, right? Many people contract it as a kid (a kiss from a relative) and their immune system suppresses it. Unless you get an HSV blood test you will not know.
      - yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
        Even blood tests are unreliable. IIRC, IgG tests are quite reliable but not every clinic does them. Many clinics default to an IgM test, which are useless[0]. The gold standard here is the Western Blot test [0]: https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/igm-blood-test-for-herpes-just-say-no/ https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/igm-blood-test-...
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
dpark 8y ago
"In my country" with no context and not even a name for your country? I'm disinclined to believe that your anecdote accurately describes any country. I like how you've inverted the common "US represents the world" fallacy by literally asserting that your herpes-blind nation is representative of the entire world exclusive of the US.
trhway 8y ago
widespread cold sores in a given society i think have 2 pronged effect: 1. a something widespread does usually have naturally higher societal acceptance 2. [IANAD] kind of "de-facto" vaccination/immunization. For example i (like many many Russians) have occasional cold sores (once in a 1-4 years, in CA seems to be less frequently than back in Russia) since childhood. I've had it on both sides of my lips which probably means that i have both - HSV1 and HSV2. That also means that i never going to get it anywhere else on my body (once any one site in the body gets infected with herpes the rest of the body develops immunity) From descriptions genital herpes seems to be worse than lip cold sores. In US (at least in CA) i see no people with cold sores, so the majority of the population is most probably susceptible to the infection. Given that sexual contact is a frequent transmission method in adulthood (while not a factor in childhood), i'm not surprised that for US population "herpes" statistically means and happens as "genital herpes" (while i haven't heard about such a thing back in Russia where we get it early in the childhood as cold sores on lips).
- dbspin 8y ago
  I find this fascinating. Never heard the claim before that lip herpes grants immunity to genital outbreaks. Also, whats source of such common early childhood herpes in Russia? Kissing from infected relatives? Given lethality of neonatal herpes it seems unlikely to be interuterine transmission.
  - yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
    I've heard that claim, and I have subsequently heard it disproven.
- gibybo 8y ago
  >That also means that i never going to get it anywhere else on my body (once any one site in the body gets infected with herpes the rest of the body develops immunity) Do you have a source for that? I have somewhat suspected that was the case based on some other things I've heard, but I have been unable to find any real sources on it.

by ericol 8y ago

newnewpdro 8y ago

Judging from the content on the linked wikipedia page for Herpes Simplex it strikes me as absurd that one would categorize it with the simple cold.

bootlooped 8y ago
Although it's not curable, there are a lot of good, cheap treatments available, and many people can go long periods of time with no symptoms. Consider the line from the Wikipedia page: "Worldwide rates of either HSV-1 or HSV-2 are between 60% and 95% in adults." If infection rates are that high, it's probably not that big of a deal for most people.
- dpark 8y ago
  Most of that 60-95% is oral, though. Genital infection rates are far lower, at <20% in the US.
- burfog 8y ago
  It's also associated with Alzheimer's disease, which is a horrible way to die. It can cause blindness and death, particularly in newborns. I don't think it wise to dismiss herpes as just something mild or inevitable.
  - philwelch 8y ago
    Gingivitis is associated with Alzheimer's disease, too.
rjurney 8y ago
Everyone gets it. It just goes away, often for years. There's no cure. Like colds.
- dpark 8y ago
  > There's no cure. Like colds. Colds resolve in a few days to a week. There is absolutely a cure, just not one in pill form.
  - philwelch 8y ago
    Most HSV outbreaks also resolve in a few days to a week, and either never recur at all or recur extremely infrequently.
    - dpark 8y ago
      The outbreak resolves. The infection does not. And recurrence of HSV is quite common.
- burfog 8y ago
  No, almost 40% of us do not get it. This is not something inevitable. I don't have any family member with the symptoms.
  - icedchai 8y ago
    You realize most people don't get any symptoms, right? Many people contract it as a kid (a kiss from a relative) and their immune system suppresses it. Unless you get an HSV blood test you will not know.
    - yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
      Even blood tests are unreliable. IIRC, IgG tests are quite reliable but not every clinic does them. Many clinics default to an IgM test, which are useless[0]. The gold standard here is the Western Blot test [0]: https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/igm-blood-test-for-herpes-just-say-no/ https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/igm-blood-test-...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

dpark 8y ago

"In my country" with no context and not even a name for your country? I'm disinclined to believe that your anecdote accurately describes any country. I like how you've inverted the common "US represents the world" fallacy by literally asserting that your herpes-blind nation is representative of the entire world exclusive of the US.

trhway 8y ago

widespread cold sores in a given society i think have 2 pronged effect: 1. a something widespread does usually have naturally higher societal acceptance 2. [IANAD] kind of "de-facto" vaccination/immunization. For example i (like many many Russians) have occasional cold sores (once in a 1-4 years, in CA seems to be less frequently than back in Russia) since childhood. I've had it on both sides of my lips which probably means that i have both - HSV1 and HSV2. That also means that i never going to get it anywhere else on my body (once any one site in the body gets infected with herpes the rest of the body develops immunity) From descriptions genital herpes seems to be worse than lip cold sores. In US (at least in CA) i see no people with cold sores, so the majority of the population is most probably susceptible to the infection. Given that sexual contact is a frequent transmission method in adulthood (while not a factor in childhood), i'm not surprised that for US population "herpes" statistically means and happens as "genital herpes" (while i haven't heard about such a thing back in Russia where we get it early in the childhood as cold sores on lips).

dbspin 8y ago
I find this fascinating. Never heard the claim before that lip herpes grants immunity to genital outbreaks. Also, whats source of such common early childhood herpes in Russia? Kissing from infected relatives? Given lethality of neonatal herpes it seems unlikely to be interuterine transmission.
- yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
  I've heard that claim, and I have subsequently heard it disproven.
gibybo 8y ago
>That also means that i never going to get it anywhere else on my body (once any one site in the body gets infected with herpes the rest of the body develops immunity) Do you have a source for that? I have somewhat suspected that was the case based on some other things I've heard, but I have been unable to find any real sources on it.