Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Herpes exposure control

New drug may [great science word] prevent transmission of herpes virus. great for infectious disease prevention ... i'd be curious as to whether the majority of herpes cases are due to casual sex vs. long-term partner sex. An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have HSV-1. okay, class - which is bigger? 1 in 5 or 100 million? I doubt they actually expect the average person reading this to know the current population. Which is, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 306 million ∴ 1 in 3 have HSV-1 Why not write: An estimated one in five americans have genital herpes,..., while one in three have HSV-1. ~or~ An estimated 60 million Americans have genital herpes,..., while 100 million have HSV-1. Perhaps they (reasonably) fear Jane Doe will think 1 in 3 is smaller than 1 in 5? Maybe they don't really want me to know how many people have HSV-2? Or perhaps they just don't really want me to know anything, such as: An estimated 1 in five Americans have genital herpes,..., while the number with HSV-1 is about one and a half times higher.