Global Herpes Statistics Updated: What the New Data Reveals
Let’s talk about the updated global herpes estimates— including both HSV-1 and HSV-2.
Before we get into the numbers.. a couple clarifications:
1) I’m not surprised. This demonstrates we need more comprehensive health education that includes teaching people how to get tested and talk to their partners about exchanging test results. Just talking about barriers, symptoms, and avoidance isn’t enough.
2) Whenever I bring up statistics about HSV-1, there are usually more questions than answers. If you have a question, please check my latest Substack article first! I go into deeper analysis about this data, where it came from, and what it means.
As a reminder, these are estimates from 2020. These numbers update data from 2012 and 2016.
With that out of the way, the highlight reel:
⭐️846 million people between 15-49 are living with herpes
⭐️There are an estimated 42 million new g herpes infections each year
⭐️ An estimated 205 million experienced one symptomatic episode in 2020
⭐️3.8 billion people under 50 (64%) had HSV-1 (oral or g-HSV)
⭐️10% of these (376 million) were estimated to be g-HSV-1)
⭐️G-HSV-1 infections have nearly doubled since 2016, from 192 million to 376 million in 2020
If you have any questions, please check out my article on Substack! It’s free and available to everyone, with all links and additional references included 🫶🏻