After Stagecoach this past weekend, there was a reported spike in people seeking treatment for herpes, TMZ reports.
According to HerpAlert—an online diagnosis and treatment website for herpes—the surge occurred in areas around the festival grounds, though Stagecoach’s outbreak wasn’t as bad as Coachella’s.
HerpAlert has doctors issue prescriptions to pharmacies after people upload photos of their afflicted area for doctors to examine. The turnaround time is fairly quick, at around two hours.
The treatment site saw an increase in people requesting prescriptions during Stagecoach. During the weekend, 114 cases were reported in Palm Desert, Coachella Valley, and Indio, which is around half of the almost 250 cases recorded in the same areas during the first weekend of Coachella, per TMZ. HerpAlert told the outlet they usually handle 12 cases per day in southern California.
After Coachella was over, news emerged that there was allegedly a massive boost in herpes cases reported during the festival. A HerpAlert rep previously told TMZ that 1,105 cases were reported across areas like Indio, Coachella Valley, and Palm Desert, as well as areas in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. During the first two days of this year's Coachella, however, HerpAlert bagged “almost 250 patients.”
However, later, health officials had doubts about the herpes spike, with Jose Arballo of the Riverside Department of Public Health saying he hasn't seen “evidence” to corroborate recent reports of a surge in cases of herpes in Southern California. Cita Walsh, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, claimed something similar, saying the organization didn't see a “measurable increase.”
