KARACHI, Nov 15: To create awareness about herpes, a “Herpes Awareness Week” will be observed from Nov 16 to 22 during which a number of activities will be organized.

This was stated by the office-bearers of the Pakistan Association of Dermatologists at a press conference on Saturday evening. During the week, booklets would be distributed among the public and lectures would be organized for the benefit of doctors as well as common people.

The speakers said herpes was often misdiagnosed by doctors and ignored by patients. The disease kept on recurring, potentially embarrassing the patients, they added.

They said that 80 to 90 per cent of the population contracted chicken-pox in their lives, making them immune to this disease. However, while they are recovering one type of virus retreats to the backbone area where it resides until the immune system of the affected person weakens.

“This is when the virus rears its head and spreads through the nervous system. This is called shingles or herpes zoster,” said one of the speakers.

The association’s office-bearers said complications of herpes included blindness, encephalitis, pneumonia and hepatitis. The patients went through a mental agony too as a consequence of the unsightly scars that herpes used to leave behind on their faces.

Answering a question, the dermatologists said the disease could be contained through medication provided it was diagnosed properly. They were of the opinion that the treatment was affordable. Poverty and overcrowding fuelled this disease, they said.

The dermatologists, who spoke on the occasion, were Dr Badar Dhanani, Dr Naeem Iqbal and Dr Manzoor Memon.