female health matters

Personal stories about female health matters.

May 28, 2008

herpes, a dirty disease?


Ulrika is 19, has two little children and is separated from her husband after he infected her with herpes – a venereal disease which she calls ‘a dirty disease’ because of the way it’s usually transmitted.

“My soon to be ex-husband became infected with herpes by having drunken unprotected sex with a prostitute while he was working offshore on a short contract job,” explains Ulrika. “He must have known he had picked up something, but he said nothing and just passed it on to me when he returned home.”

"I know, it's not the end of the world, things could be worse I suppose," says Ulrika, "but this herpes infection in my private parts makes me feel, well, dirty, and when you've only been with one guy, someone you grew up with and trusted with your life, you don't expect this sort of thing to happen to you."

"I've been scouring the internet for information ever since I discovered what the rash was," says Ulrika. "It's all bad news, there's no cure, it can get worse with shingles and when I read an article about actually dying from herpes I really freaked out."

"So I did my own research - see below,” says Ulrika. “If regional pollution is the main ‘cause’ of herpes death – the sort of living environment in which herpes is prevalent – then I'm at terrible risk where I live now, way out of town, right next to an industrial estate.”

“The point is, I suppose, that industrial estates are not just air pollution hazards,” explains Ulrika. “They’re also the sort of places with a lot of itinerant hard drinking male workers – which is a fair description of my soon to be ex-husband.“

"This is what I discovered".

The top 10 reciprocal causal factors relating to herpes death surprisingly rate environmental factors much higher than any other. In order of highest incidence, they are : 82.61% Land (sq km per 1000 people) 67.16% CFC emissions 66.45% Nitrogen Oxide 64.22% High Prices 63.02% Carbon Dioxide 61.56% Municipal Waste 61.35% Living Alone 57.71% Sulfur Dioxide 57.12% Teen Pregnancy and 55.69% Soft Drinks.

In total, statistics of 30 countries were examined for the incidence of death by herpes and 33 causal factors were taken into consideration (personal consumption, family and social issues, environmental issues and population).

The reciprocal causal factors were determined as follows. Firstly, the 15 countries with the highest incidence of death by herpes were examined to establish causes and their values. Secondly, the 15 countries with the highest incidences of these causal factors were examined to establish values in relation to herpes death. Finally, these two values were added together to obtain an average.

If causes alone were taken as established facts then something like Cannabis rating 62.43% would come into play, but as countries with the highest incidence of Cannabis consumption did not have a corresponding high incidence of herpes death its reciprocal causal factor was very low and as such Cannabis did not make the top 10.

In order of highest incidence, the top 15 countries representing 88.97% of the total herpes deaths are : Iceland Sweden Netherlands Finland Spain NZ US Japan Australia Denmark Austria Canada Germany S. Korea and Norway.

Compare that with the bottom 15 countries representing only 11.03% of total herpes deaths. These countries are : Hungary Czech R. Slovakia Mexico Poland Luxembourg UK Portugal Italy Greece Belgium France Switzerland Ireland Turkey

So, personal behavior is not a huge factor in herpes death but it definitely plays a part in the top 15 countries above which have a high proportion of Land (sq km per 1000 people), CFC emissions, Nitrogen Oxide emissions, Carbon Dioxide emissions, Municipal Waste and High Prices (Comparative Prices OECD).

Less important contributing factors include a high proportion of Sulfur Dioxide emissions, Living Alone, Teen Pregnancy and Soft Drinks consumption.

"Overall, sounds like death was caused more by regional pollution, vast tracts of heavily polluted land, than the herpes virus." says Ulrika, "but you can't put that on a death certificate can you?"

"If pollution (particularly CFC, Nitrogen Oxide and Carbon Dioxide emissions) compromise the immune system, then perhaps blaming the herpes virus for death is unfair. Also, if death was hastened by a whole bunch of Sex Nazis putting unnecessary stress on unfortunate people with the virus then without this interference they might otherwise have died of something else."

Read more about Ulrika:



  • there’s no separation from herpes




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