As many as one in three Kiwis have the virus that leads to genital herpes . Up to 80% of New Zealanders will get genital or oral herpes at some stage in their lives. The New Zealand Herpes Foundation aims to provide reliable information and support to those affected.
Sir Graham Henry, Ashley Bloomfield and a group of other Kiwi celebs are fronting a new campaign to make New Zealand the best place in the world to have herpes . And odds are you, too, have got herpes, along with 80% of all New Zealanders. When Alaina Luxmoore, a 43-year-old Auckland woman, first noticed something didn’t feel right “down there”, she organised an appointment with her doctor, but says she was “praying that it was HPV.
Which is not cool”. HPV is a virus commonly associated with cervical cancer but, unlike herpes, it typically isn’t a lifelong diagnosis. It also doesn’t have the same stigma attached to it despite the herpes simplex virus (or HSV) being one of the most common viruses in the world.
Luxmoore cried in the appointment when her doctor told her that her sores looked like herpes, and for the next couple of days after receiving her HSV-1 diagnosis..
