About one in five U.S. adults and teens have had a genital herpes infection -- and most don’t know it. Learn about the herpes simplex virus and how to lower your risk.
Genital herpes is an infection of the genitals, buttocks, or anal area caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV). Most genital herpes is caused by HSV type 2. Yet as people begin to have sex at younger ages the herpes type 1 virus has increasingly been shown to also cause genital herpes.