CDC Most With Herpes Still Don't Know It.

bSaundra Young, CNN Medical Senior Producer
  CNN) -- As much as 16 percent of the U.S. population between the ages of 14 and 49 has genital herpes, according to a government study released Tuesday.   And sexually transmitted diseases of all varieties infect 19 million more Americans every year -- a rate that costs the health care system some $16 billion annually, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found. The study was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the the National STD Prevention Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
  ...Fenton said the high rates of herpes among African-Americans is most likely contributing to the high rate of HIV in that community. In fact, statistics show that people with herpes are two to three times more likely to get HIV if exposed.
  The CDC estimates that more than 80 percent of the people who have the herpes simplex 2 virus don't know they are infected. Many people never have symptoms or outbreaks, or those symptoms are mild and mistaken for something else. But transmission can occur without symptoms or visible sores. Read the whole article: Source/CNN Herpes