You are not alone

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.

In Europe for type 2 genitally: 35% of women are infected, with 9% having had an outbreak, and 27.5% men are infected, with 5% having had an outbreak. For type 1: 25 % of women are infected, with 0.7 % having had an outbreak, and 14 % men are infected, with 0.5% having had an outbreak

You can read about transmission on our webpage.

TYPE 1 – cold sores (on face) or genital sores

Cold sores are universal. By adulthood, a person is more likely that not to have the virus. However most people don’t ever notice that they get a cold sore. It is so mild that it goes unnoticed, or is thought to be ‘an itchy patch’ or ‘a little cut’ or ‘a pimple just below my lip’. Therefore, a person who is aware that they get the occasional cold sore is less likely to pass it on that the others who have nor realised that their minor symptom is a cold sore.

You are not expected to catch a cold sore again -anywhere on your body. Because, the antibodies you develop, for an infection on your face, will protect you from catching it again elsewhere. So it will not spread between partners when they do oral sex if both already have it.

Oral sex is the way that people get type 1 genitally. So don’t give oral sex when you have a cold sore.

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And, if you do get cold sores, try the LomaProtect salve we sell on our website. Used promptly, we expect it to stop the cold sore from developing.

^{This page was published 7-1-2025}