Since 2020, everyone can have free prescriptions for treatments for all STIs and HIV. (But also see last paragraph below.)
Make sure any antiviral prescription from a GP is endorsed with ‘FS.’ There is no need for the GP to write anything else on it.
Continue reading Free prescriptionsThe bad news
For many years we have been reporting on the research that finds that people with facial infection who also have a variant of the APOE4 gene are more likely than others to develop Alzheimer’s disease. (This is not relevant if you have it genitally. And people with genital infection are very unlikely to ever catch a new facial infection.) Only a tiny number of people have this gene variant – and anyway it is only ‘more likely to’ not ‘will’ develop.
Continue reading Will a shingles vaccine help prevent dementia? Does having herpes contribute to dementia?A new report, paid for by a grant from the World Health Organisation, finds that one in 5 of the world’s population has genital herpes.
This is an estimate based on studies in countries around the world. It is an update on the study published in 2016 using improved data. The authors have broken down the data into continents/WHO regions. The highest rate is in Africa and the Western Pacific Region. Overall, over 900 million people have genital infection – and many more have facial infection.
Continue reading You are not aloneYou wait for years for a herpes vaccine trial to be run in the UK and then two turn up at once.
Continue reading Two herpes vaccine trialsThere is one other ‘good’ herpes organisation, apart from ours and it has award winning videos about herpes… The New Zealand Herpes Foundation has just issued a series of videos. They are GREAT.
Continue reading Great videos about herpesNigel Scott, HVA trustee, reports:
Continue reading Charity’s director awarded an MBE honourYou can download a PDF of this article.
Let’s look at how herpes got its stigma:
For anyone in the twenty first century it is hard to believe that there was a time when ‘herpes’ was not a stigmatised and feared condition. But this is true. Less than forty years ago genital herpes was largely ignored. Newly diagnosed patients were not made to feel that a common skin condition had just ended their chance of having future relationships. Doctors knew that they were simply dealing with the manifestation of the common facial cold sore on a different site and they treated it appropriately. In the early 1980s things changed. How and why did this happen?
Continue reading How herpes got its stigmaIf you have had the virus for a while, we expect you will have symptoms less often and more mildly. But we do get people calling our helpline who ask “Why have my herpes episodes got more frequent, now?” This is a fairly common question.
Continue reading Why has my herpes got worse?A common question by callers on our helpline (0345 123 2305) is often “Why didn’t I catch herpes on my face and genitals? We did oral sex as well as regular sex. So surely I should have seen symptoms in both places instead of only on my genitals.”
We have not found any medical papers on this topic, although “having herpes on genitals as well as face” is something that is mentioned in reported case histories of individual patients.
Two possible reasons that I have thought up:
Continue reading Why don’t I have my herpes on face and genitals?You may see ‘Are they working on a cure for herpes?’ on forums and in internet questions.
The answer is a resounding “YES.” The medical world is well aware that there area many people who have too many recurrences. And some of them know how badly the ‘idea of having herpes’ affects society – especially in America. There are fortunes to be made…
Can we guess when a cure for herpes might be available? NO, WE CANNOT. There is no way to know when a breakthrough will occur. So, do not put your life “on hold” until they invent something new. Learn to live in harmony with the virus. Our resources will enable you to do just that.
New reports
Weekly, the HVA is sent links to newly published scientific articles which include the word ‘herpes’. We get between 23 and 156 each week. Some are about herpes varicella or herpes zoster – but plenty are about herpes simplex too.
Most papers report research in silico (computer based i.e. “in silicon”), or in vitro (“in glass” i.e. using cells growing in the laboratory). We occasionally report on these for the monthly updates our subscribers are sent.
Occasionally, the research reports working in vivo (in living organism) and this is when we start looking seriously at their work.
