- (CBS HealthWatch) - Jimmy was only two weeks old when
he had his first outbreak of herpes--unsightly lesions at the head and
neck. The next day, he went into a coma. His mother, Barbara Peabody Wilkop,
had not known she was a carrier of the sexually transmitted disease (STD),
and did not take the usual precautions given to pregnant women who have
herpes.
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- Thirteen-year-old Jimmy is now mentally retarded, epileptic
and cannot communicate except through minimum sign language. With the consequences
of neonatal herpes transmission notably displayed in Jimmy's health and
behavior, Wilkop had to deal with the guilt of passing on the virus to
her son, and with having to explain his condition to her family and friends.
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- Today, Wilkop joined a group of experts and patients
who gathered together to break the silence on genital herpes. The panel
reported that 90% of those who have the disease don't know it, even though
at least 45 million people are carriers. That translates to one in five
Americans over 12 years old.
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- "So if you've had sex with five people, the odds
are that at least one of them had genital herpes," says H. Hunter
Handsfield, MD, director of the Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Program
for Public Health in Seattle and King County in Washington. He notes that
many people don't know they have the virus, because sometimes there are
no visible signs that one has been infected.
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- In addition, Handsfield says apart from HIV/AIDS, genital
herpes is the STD of greatest concern to young people.
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- A 1997 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
study looked into the infection rates of herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2),
and found the number of teenagers who acquired HSV-2 quintupled from the
late 1970s to the early 1990s. Infection rates doubled for persons in their
20s, and the risk decreased as people got older. Overall, HSV-2 transmission
reportedly increased 30% in two decades.
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- HSV-2 causes genital herpes, although sometimes herpes
simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) can also be a culprit. HSV-1 is mostly responsible
for cold sores or fever blisters in the mouth.
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- The increased number of young people infected with HSV-2
is alarming, says Douglas T. Fleming, MD, assistant professor of medicine
at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine
and Dentistry in New Jersey. He notes that perhaps many teens and young
adults don't think "safe sex" messages apply to them. Plus, he
says many adolescents have the perception that they are safe with oralsex.
In a recent survey, when asked whether they had had sex, many kids reportedly
said 'No.' But when asked whether they had had oral sex, the same group
said 'Yes.'
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- Experts say genital herpes is transmitted through sexual
intercourse, oral sex, and not by contact with toilet seats, hot tubs or
shared towels.
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- Neonatal herpes is considered the most serious consequence
of untreated genital herpes. In rare cases, the infected have life-threatening
skin conditions, or recurrent meningitis and headaches.
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- To find out whether you or a loved one has genital herpes,
a simple blood test is available at the doctor's office. It is important
to ask for a test that can also tell which type of herpes you have, if
any.
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- Anyone who is interested in learning more about herpes
is encouraged to visit the Web site of the http://www.ashastd.orgAmerican
Social Health Association (ASHA). The group also has a http://www.iwannaknow.org
Web site for teens.
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