The World Health Organization (WHO) published its first global estimates of the occurrence of oral herpes. Just about seven in 10 people under the age of 50, which is more than 3.7 billion teens and adults worldwide, are infected with the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1) a which causes the highly contagious oral herpes.
The report revealed an that more than 1 billion people are infected with HSV-1 are living the Western Pacific region, slightly less than 1 billion in Southeast Asia, more than 700 million people are infected in Africa, 400 million in Europe and 320 million in North and South America.
The HSV-1 is usually manifests as a oral sores rather than genital infection, but it is becoming an increasing cause of genital infection too, mainly in rich countries. This is because improved hygiene in rich countries is lowering HSV-1 infection rates in childhood, leaving young people more at risk of catching it via oral sex when they become sexually active. The report states that about 140 million people globally between the ages of 15 and 49 have an HSV-1 genital infection.
HSV-2 causes the more common form of genital herpes, a condition characterized by painful blisters and sores in the anal or genital areas. The WHO estimated that, worldwide, 417 million people aged 15 to 49 years have HSV-2 infection. Overall, these recent estimates show that countries need to improve data collection for both HSV types, as well as sexually transmitted infections.