Educational or perpetuating the stigma of herpes.

I saw this clip from PBS in my news feed and I was quote bothered by some of the choice of words and the focus on the virus itself. What do you think @WCDancer @whitedaisies

Watch "What Can Herpes Do To Your Brain?" on YouTube

*Sigh*

I'll have to deal with this after H Opp ... what a great way to freak people out ... but then again, it's called "Gross Science" ... so I guess I'm not surprised :(

I'm tempted to contact the producer.... Amazed at the lack of thought, compassion and real education, that goes into this video

I expect they don't care and are pandering to folks who love to get grossed out and who don't care about truth or how it affects others ... :(

Hadn't thought of it like that, but I can totally see that being the point. After all, fear mongering is attention getting.

Bingo! :)

Yep, the way this was presented was the big probbem here.

Great, so now herpes isn't just ending my sex life, it also makes me creepy. Thanks NOVA!!!

On the flip side, oral hsv 1 doesn't have the stigma of genital herpes and they basically just made people feel like they could die now from oral herpes.. Bunch a jack asses who produced this. Wonder how many people called out sick on the making of this, because they had a cold sore and felt ashamed...

*brain herpes*, that's my favorite.... Thanks PBS, now oral herpes can get the same stigma as genital and then it will essentially destigmatize genital herpes, since they made it sound so much worse than genital.

Hmmmmm I don't seem to share the same reaction to this video as the rest of you! If not for the name of the show, I didn't find any of the info or presentation of it to be offensive. Maybe it's just me but I actually felt like it referenced all herpes as equal and pointed out that most people have it, even making reference to a friend with shingles. The location of the shingles reference being on the butt added a bit of humor and pointed out how herpes works in the body. To me, it came across as a set of facts that may be deemed as "gross" but aren't there a lot of scientific things that relate to our bodies a little gross? Hemorrhoids, zits, warts..... (btw, I have had all of these:). I didn't take issue with the video!

I get your point, but they really focused on how herpes can basically destroy your brain.... That's the part I'm worried about. Obviously everyone will view this differently, but do you think @fitgirl that your perception is what it is, due to the fact that you are educated on it? Imagine people who don't lnow anything about it and arw ignorant, how do you think they would perceive this? That's my concern.

@2Legit2Quit certainly my reaction could in part be due to my education on the matter but I have to say, I don't think that is really at the core of it. I often watch programs like this one with my 8yr old son who is fascinated by such facts and I look at it from the scientific point of view. I actually found the brain herpes to me interesting and they did make it clear that it was EXTREMELY rare. They also parlayed brain herpes into other interesting facts about brain injury and what we have learned about the brain. I know that when a topic hits close to home, we can feel offended or get defensive but I truly believe this video was intended for knowledge and I didn't think it was in poor taste. In fact, you could look at it from the opposite angle...... the title and content of the show attracts young, inquiring minds and it educated them that herpes is ultimately in all of us in one form or another so by default, it makes it just another virus that lives within us! That's just my take on it :)

God please don't tell me there is brain herpes. I can't watch te video.

I thought people could just get meningitis from herpes.

Shit!

With h I got chronic fatigue/post viral syndrome and lots of weird symptoms confusion and lack of memory as well as I get an earthquake feelig in my body when I awake from sleep.

Ugh.

I'm probably a pessimist, so maybe it's just me.

That's why they were calling it brain herpes... Cause it can cause that and encephalitis, but it is rare

That's not brain herpes!!!

Isn't meningitis an overreaction of the immune system when confronting a virus or bacteria?

Brain herpes would be lesions in ur actual brain....

No.... It's when the virus infects the meninges around the brain, causing swelling and inflammation... Alls I know, is it was painful as hell when I had it and I was in isolation for a week in the hospital.

Oh I see.

I am so happy you lived through such a difficult infection!!

Everything in life is about perception. Perception is reality. If you think and believe the worst, you will perpetuate it. You can choose a different reality for yourself. Totally your choice.

I feel the same way about it as @fitgirl and im guessing the 'Brain Herpes' they are referring to is meningitis which I thought was super rare?

Starting out saying herpes is way creepier than you ever imagined is not good. Too many people are ignorant about herpes as it is. Saying something like that doesn't help, kind of helps reinforce a stereotype I think. I have no issue really with the facts that are presented, from what I can tell they are fairly accurate. I just felt the young lady came acrossed as a little valley girlish...grody to the max. Then again I may be an old stick in the mud...just thought it could have been presented better than it was.

I agree w how she came off and I wasn't she if she was trying to make a pun, since the word herpes means to creep in Greek. If she was in fact trying to make a pun, you're supposed yo make the pun obvious. And yes, people will be ignorant about the term brain herpes and not get what they meant by it.

My biggest fear is they are learning note and more about how herpes viruses wreck havoc on our immune system and cause other issues and I fear it will create a larger stigma about it in my lifetime. Hope I'm wrong.

The problem is that half my work here is helping people to understand that while it DOES happen, it's not that easy to spread Herpes to the eyes, hands, OR brain ... so all I meed right now is MORE people totally freaking out that they are an oozing petri dish of virus and that they are going to die from "Brain Herpes" :/

To be so flip about it too is just not cool. Period.

Amen!