20 percent, over 50 million people, are infected with genital herpes, and the majority of these cases may be unaware they even have it.
Studies show that more than 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with genital herpes each year. Efforts to develop a vaccine by biotechnology companies are ongoing.
Generally, a person can only get HSV-2 infection during sexual contact with someone who has a genital HSV-2 infection.
Transmission can occur from an infected partner who does not have a visible sore and may not know that he or she is infected.
Genital HSV-2 infection is more common in women (approximately one out of four women) than in men (almost one out of five).
This may be due to male-to-female transmissions being more likely than female-to-male transmission. HSV-1 and HSV-2 can be found in and released from the sores that the viruses cause, but they also are released between outbreaks from skin that does not appear to be broken or to have a sore.
When signs do occur, they typically appear as one or more blisters on or around the genitals or rectum.
Although the infection can stay in the body indefinitely, the number of outbreaks tends to decrease over a period of years. Results of a nationally representative study show that genital herpes infection is common in the United States.HSV-1 can cause genital herpes, but it more commonly causes infections of the mouth and lips, so-called ? HSV-1 infection of the genitals can be caused by oral-genital or genital-genital contact with a person who has HSV-1 infection.Genital HSV-1 outbreaks recur less regularly than genital HSV-2 outbreaks. There is no treatment that can cure herpes, but antiviral medications can shorten and prevent outbreaks during the period of time the person takes the medication.About 6.2 million Americans get a new genital HPV infection each year. The types of HPV that infect the genital area are spread primarily through genital contact.Most HPV infections have no signs or symptoms; therefore, most infected persons are unaware they are infected, yet they can transmit the virus to a sex partner.