Music Festivals Coachella And Stagecoach See Peak In Herpes Transmissions

Music festivals are rarely known for their sanitation. When you have a bunch of strangers gathered together in tents and huts, surrounded by mud and few cleaning products, you're bound to get a bit dirty. But new statics show that the folks at Coachella and Stagecoach are getting dirty in a whole other, much more gross connotation. Specifically, these festivals found an increase in herpes outbreaks.

Let me be the first person to say: Yikes.

As it was reported by TMZ, the people over at HerpAlert — which is apparently the leading source in diagnosing herpes outbreaks and providing the proper treatment for those inflicted with the sexually transmitted disease — have noticed a spike in individuals looking for treatment. Particularly in areas surrounding the festival grounds at Stagecoach. That is not a good sign at all, but it's apparently not as severe as the herpes outbreak that was reported around Coachella weeks earlier.

According to the leading source in herpes-related statistics, there were 114 herpes cases reported in Palm Desert, Coachella Valley and Indio. That's believed to be half of the almost 250 cases that were reported in the same locations during Coachella's first weekend. Evidently, there were a lot of folks who were looking to get it on, and they might not have had the proper protection. Thankfully, HerpAlert have provided people with the proper information on how to receive prescriptions from local medical experts after these new STD-related, festival-based outbreaks.

That is certainly an increase compared to the normal numbers. On a typical day, HerpAlert claims they typical handle 12 cases a day. It appears that the extended music festival season has introduced more-than-a-few new clients into the clinic.

Despite this information gleaned from HerpAlert, however, it should be noted that The Riverside County Health Department commented to say that their STD programs and their labs have not seen any increases or spikes in herpes cases in Stagecoach and Coachella, despite what the website says. Nevertheless, HerpAlert also wanted to note that the surges were not entirely from new patients. The data is also counting previous patients who were trying to seek prescriptions as well.

In any case, if you were planning to attend a major music festival in the next few months, you should be careful. Make sure you have the proper precautions, especially as the scene isn't synonymous with hygiene. It appears the current herpes outbreak is pretty intense, and you can never have too many precautions about these things.

We don't typically write about sexually transmitted infections. At least, not a regular basis. But if you are itching to read more about the latest news in film, television, pop culture, celebrity culture and a whole lot more, you can always be sure to check back with us here at CinemaBlend to find out the latest scoop and news updates.