News and Stories

We run these days to help you develop confidence, information, skills to talk to a new partner – and to meet others in the same boat.

Nine people attended recently. They marked their score cards with the top rating: a ‘very helpful’ day and several commented that it was even more enjoyable than they had expected. “Meeting the others on the course is a bonus,” said one lady.  “In fact I have made two new friends and we support each other and meet up.”  These days happen every three months. You can see the date for the next one on the Support Groups page of the website.
Continue reading ‘Talking to a New Partner’ – Come to an Event That Will Give You Confidence (and Information)

You may have read some headlines in the Sun or the Mail, etc. They report “‘Women infected with herpes while they are pregnant are twice as likely to have a child with autism.” This headline comes from a study looking at whether maternal infections during pregnancy are associated with the risk of neurological developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
Continue reading No “Link between herpes in pregnancy and autism”

“Dates for the diary” now has its own events page

Events are now on their own website page – with dates

We organise a support groups/social get-togethers – mostly in London. The hosts for these events are people with herpes.  You can meet others with the virus, share experiences…

We hold informal, interactive days when you can learn how to talk to a new partner.  These are on the first Saturday of them month – and they are extremely popular. The usual  comment from people who attend is always something like: “I wish I had gone to one of these sooner…”

And a formal seminar – once a year – with a doctor who is expert in genital herpes.  We always ask the doctor to be sure to allow time for answering all your questions. Next one is on May 12th, 2018.

Since COVID, we have added lots of Zoom events too. Several every month.

Office Work

We need a volunteer (or more than one) to come into the office to do the routine tasks of administration. (We had a great guy, but we found him a full-time paid job in this building, so now we need ‘you’!)
Continue reading Volunteering

Daily Mail confuses different herpes viruses

Do you know the difference between genital herpes (caused by herpes simplex types 1 or 2) and glandular fever (caused humanherpes virus 4 i.e. Epstein Barr virus)? Of course you do, but the Daily Mail doesn’t! On 20th July 2016, health writer Mia De Graaf confused these viruses and also Kaposi’s sarcoma virus (humanherpes virus 8). Herpes simplex is not, ever involved in cancer-causing activities, HHV 4 and 8 are. Simples!
Continue reading When the media gets it wrong!

By reading everything on this site, you will be reassured and educated. The information on this site is written to the high standards required by The Information Standard.  This means that all medical statements about genital herpes are referenced – often from the guidelines written by doctors who are specialists in genital herpes.
Continue reading Are you reading everything on this site?

The Sun (23-9-15) Wrote About a Mum Who is Asking People Not to Kiss New Babies

Because Claire Henderson had never had a cold sore (or any other herpes simplex virus) her baby did not have any antibody protection when someone with a cold sore kissed baby Brooke.  The new-born baby became very ill. Luckily, the hospital put the baby on an aciclovir drip and this ensured that she made a full recovery.

If you have genital herpes, cold sores, or whitlows (on the finger), your new babies have ‘borrowed’ antibody protection that will last them until they are old enough to catch things without danger.  So you do not have to worry about infecting your baby.

Since no one knows the antibody status of a new baby, don’t kiss a baby that is not yours!

 

“The conviction was sound” said the judges at the Case Review, requested by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Read our case review press release, May 2014 and our blog.

This is the only case that has ever reached court, regarding herpes.  It happened only because neither David nor his lawyer did anything to find out about herpes.  David just went to court and pleaded guilty. There was no trial, therefore this cannot be said to create a precedent.

We can reassure readers that David has got over this and is living happily…

In December 2012, the Amgen PR lady informed us that their report re the phase I Immunovex vaccine trial was not ready for publication. However she assured us that Amgen is committed to following pharma’s guidelines which say that the results of every trial involving volunteers (42 in this case) must be made public. This vaccine was created by the Biovex company, and Amgen has bought Biovex. Phase I is the safety stage – and, so far, the vaccine has proved safe. So it will be a commercial decision as to whether a phase II trial is undertaken. The hope is that this jab could prevent genital herpes in those as yet uninfected and also act as a treatment for people who are getting too many genital herpse outbreaks.
Continue reading Vaccine Trial in London

NOW DELETED BY WIKIPEDIA

“Our own Wikipedia page: the history of the HVA – why and how we started up – a bit about the creation of the stigma – you can see it on the Herpes Viruses Association Wikipedia page now! It needs someone to go in and ‘edit’ into the text all the links to other pages of Wiki.  Whilst creating this page, it became obvious that we could add a lot more about how the stigma was invented on the regular herpes simplex page.”

And then, one day it was gone! Too much was written by us it appears!  We thought we were well equipped to describe the charity! It seems we were too well-informed, too close.