Sir Graham Henry, Sir Buck Shelford and Sir Ashley Bloomfield are among well-known Kiwis who have teamed up for a campaign for Global Herpes Awareness Day.
Sir Graham Henry, Sir Buck Shelford and Sir Ashley Bloomfield are among well-known Kiwis who have teamed up for a campaign for Global Herpes Awareness Day.
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.
To mark Global Herpes Awareness Day on October 13, the New Zealand Herpes Foundation has launched a campaign to help destigmatise the virus, starring some very familiar faces.
Sir Ashley Bloomfield is back to fighting a virus – but not the one you associate with lockdowns and 1pm updates.
Alongside Sir Graham Henry, Sir Buck Shelford, boxing champ Mea Motu, comedian Angella Dravid, Dame Sue Bagshaw and Real Housewives of Auckland star Anne Batley-Burton, he’s fronting a campaign for the New Zealand Herpes Foundation, launching today.
The household names are teaming up to explain what herpes is, how common it is, whether you need to be worried or feel awkward about it, and how to help fight the stigma associated with the sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Up to 80% of New Zealanders will get genital or oral herpes at some stage in their lives, but research shows most of us are too afraid of judgment to talk about it.
Mea Motu, Sir Graham Henry and Angella Dravid feature in a campaign aimed at reducing the stigma around herpes.
A survey conducted by researcher TRA on thousands of people around the world showed that more than a third of Kiwis believed they would be treated differently by their friends and family if it was known they had herpes.
That’s despite the fact that 26.8% of women and 17.3% of men in New Zealand will have genital herpes by the time they’re 38. However, more than 80% of people with herpes won’t have any symptoms at all.
Bloomfield says the shame associated with herpes could have a “profound” psychological impact on many and can leave people feeling isolated.
“The problem is not people, the problem is the virus. And we need to focus on the virus rather than making people feel bad about the fact they’ve had an infection,” he says.
“Thirty per cent of all Kiwis diagnosed with the herpes virus experience depressive or suicidal thoughts. This is a problem we can solve, which is pretty rare these days. Let’s make New Zealand the best place in the world to have herpes.”
Several well-known Kiwis have teamed up for a campaign for Global Herpes Awareness Day.
Professional boxer Mea Motu tells the Herald she often gets cold sores after fights, and judgmental looks because of them.
“People would look at me because of all my sores on my lips and to me, like, it was just normal,” she says.
“The fact that people are like, you know, comfortable commenting on that and pointing it out to someone is nuts. And I just find it so disgusting that people want to belittle people for simple little sores.
“Those sorts of things pop up when you’re run down, when you’re feeling a bit s***, and then on top of that people point them out and make you feel even worse.
“If we can normalise it and let it be okay, then it gives people the courage to be like, ‘There’s nothing wrong with me’, and then they’re able to step outside and still be themselves.”
A cold sore is a small blister that typically forms on or around the lips or inside the mouth, and it is caused by the herpes simplex virus.
It’s something Motu wishes she’d seen when she was a teenager. “I wish that I heard someone like me talk about it and normalise it because it would have given me the courage to speak up.”
Her message to anyone feeling embarrassed is, “Don’t live in shame and be true to who you are. Don’t let anyone insult you or make you feel discouraged, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones with the problem, not you.”
About herpes in New Zealand
According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 3.7 billion people under the age of 50 have the HSV-1 virus, or oral herpes, while an estimated 491 million from the ages of 15 to 49 have genital herpes, or HSV-2.
HSC-1 causes 50% of genital herpes through physical contact, while HSV-2 is generally caused by contact between genitals. About 20% of people with HSV experience symptoms, while 75% of those with genital herpes get it from people who don’t know they have it themselves.
The Herpes Foundation’s Alaina Luxmoore – who got herpes herself in her late 30s – says that for most people, the shame of having herpes is worse than the symptoms of the virus itself.
“Every day we speak with people dealing with feelings of shame, self-loathing, and social isolation. People who are finding their sex lives and dating lives disrupted. And for what? Not from any physical impact from the infection, but from the shame and stigma that we as a society associate with this diagnosis,” she says.
