Two-thirds of the world's population — 3.7 billion people — has the incurable herpes virus, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The virus is known to cause cold sores, but it can also cause sores on the genitals — and oral sex is becoming a leading way it's being transmitted, the WHO reported in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.
"An estimated 140 million people aged 15-49 years were calculated to have prevalent genital HSV-1 infection globally in 2012," the WHO research team wrote.
That means two kinds of incurable herpes viruses are causing sexually transmitted infections in the populations.
HSV-2 is traditionally called genital herpes, and it's the kind most people think of as causing sexually transmitted infections. HSV-1, while annoying and sometimes painful, is usually caught in childhood and often via kisses.
