Herpes Viruses Association

The Herpes Viruses Association (formerly the Herpes Association) was started in 1982. It is a support group for people with Herpes simplex virus. It conducts information campaigns and attempts to reduce the stigma associated with sexually transmitted diseases.

It became a registered charity with a Dept of Health grant in 1985. The charity started as a string of local group meetings before acquiring an office and a national spread.[1][2] It is widely referred to as a source of help for patients who are anxious about the conditions,[3] primarily genital herpes.[4]

The Association campaigns against the transmission of herpes being treated as a criminal offence. It supported David Golding who was convicted and imprisoned for infecting a woman with genital herpes in 2011.[5] Their spokesman said the sentence for causing grievous bodily harm was ‘outrageous’ and compared it to prosecuting children for giving their friends chicken pox, or passing on a cold sore.[6]

It supported the campaign to keep the sexual health services of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2014.[7]

It carried out a double-blind trial of liquorice lip balm on forty people in 2014 and found that it reduced the severity of symptoms in most subjects.[8] Marian Nicholson, the Director of the Association, is frequently quoted in relation to research into the development of remedies.[9][10]

Dr Phil Hammond (comedian) is the president of the association. Between 1993 and 2002 Clare Rayner was one of its patrons.