How many people suffer with herpes?
According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, the genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, 16.2%, or about one out of six, people 14 to 49 years of age have genital HSV-2 infection. Over the past decade, the percentage of Americans with genital herpes infection in the U.S. has remained stable.
What are the signs and symptoms?
People with herpes may not know they have it. Symptoms can be confused with the flu and in some cases just a few bumps appear which many people don’t see or dismiss. For others, breakouts are common and can appear within two weeks of contracting the condition. In the first year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a person could deal with five outbreaks a year. Typically, the outbreaks decrease in frequency over time.
What is the treatment?
There is no cure for herpes, but there are some treatments that can prevent outbreaks and medications that lower the risk of spreading herpes to a partner.
Is there a vaccine in the works?
In a recent trial, including more than 8,000 participants, the results showed no significant difference in the women that were given the vaccine versus the women that were given the placebo.
“The failure of the vaccine really suggests that we need to look at new approaches to H.S.V. vaccine development,” said Dr. Peter A. Leone, an author of the study and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.
Researchers are going back to square one and are looking at using different ways to create the vaccine.
