A survey by World Health Organization suggests that around over half a billion people between the age of 15-49 develop a genital infection caused by HSV-1 or HSV-2 on a global scale.

The disease is accompanied with minor or no symptoms in some cases. These symptoms are hard to identify and are mistaken for other diseases. Only 15% of people in the U.S. that were suffering from genital herpes were able to acquire a prior diagnosis in 2012.

Herpes is a common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, 20 percent of sexually active adults carry genital herpes. Young adults are prone to contracting the HSV-1 infection. This infection later develops to cause genital herpes in young adults. According to a survey by WHO, the estimate of new HSV-1 infection among people of the age 0-49 was around 11 million in 2012.