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Number of Reported Herpes Cases Skyrockets Around Coachella Music Festival

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This is not a headline from The Onion. I repeat, this is not fake news. But it does kind of look like one, doesn’t it?

According to TMZ, there was an outbreak of people treated for herpes in the communities around the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California, recently.

It seems 1,105 cases of herpes were reported in towns around Indio and in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties in Southern California.

The information comes from Herpalert, a service that launched in 2017 to help people who think they’ve been stricken with herpes. It allows potential sufferers to send photos in to doctors so they can get a quick assessment (like, within a few hours).

A typical day sees about a dozen inquiries to the service in Southern California, but in the first two days of Coachella, 250 cases were reported.

Coincidence? It sure doesn’t seem like it. The previous high the service saw was around the 2018 Oscars when Herpalert saw around 60 cases each day.

What happens at Coachella…apparently doesn’t stay at Coachella. Be careful out there, friends!