For one fan, the memory of attending the Falls music festival in Australia is one that’ll stick with her for life — unfortunately.
Taneesha Crowe, 23, warned her followers on TikTok about the perils of concertgoing, after she contracted herpes on her forehead at the music festival in Melbourne, according to a report.
“So five years ago I finished school and I went to Falls, and when I got home I was so sick,” Crowe shared on the social media app, in a recent post that was reportedly deleted shortly after her story went viral.
Crowe, who was 18 years old at the time of the event, went on to develop a “massive painful scab” — that soon left her unable to eat or drink, landing her in the hospital for five days.
“I couldn’t keep any food down, I couldn’t keep any water down. I couldn’t sleep because I was having cold sweats,” she explained.
Doctors initially believed the rash on her head was a simple sunburn — until her condition worsened, with fever and an evolving rash that eventually turned black, resembling a scab.
“I remember going to the pharmacist and she was like, ‘Oh my god are you okay, did you fall over?’ I was so embarrassed,” she continued, according to a previous report.
Determined to get rid of the growing scab, she got tested for staphylococcus (staph) and the shingles virus, which both returned negative.
One follow-up with Crowe’s doctors prompted them to rush her to a hospital, after seeing how drastically the rash had worsened.
After five days of testing, Crowe was diagnosed with herpes, which is caused by the Herpes simplex virus (HSV).
“Basically it was a huge cold sore on my face,” said Crowe.
There are two types of HSV: HSV1 (oral herpes) and HSV2 (genital herpes).
Type one is usually spread through oral contact, and manifests most commonly in and around the mouth, which we often call cold sores; type two is typically sexually transmitted, causing genital and anal warts — though HSV1 can also cause warts down there.
The Melbourne woman still doesn’t know how she contracted the disease. Her doctors posited that she may have brushed against someone with an infected sore in the crowd.
Crowe’s biggest concern after her diagnosis was if she would be left with a huge scar. “It did take a lot of time [to heal] but there’s not really any noticeable scarring left,” she said.
Currently, there is no cure for herpes. However, there are ways to treat the virus and subdue outbreaks, with both oral and topical therapies.
It’s been estimated that some 50-80% of people in the US carry the oral herpes virus, according to the National Institutes of Health, though it may never rear its ugly head. Many people with herpes don’t show symptoms, and won’t know they have it unless an outbreak occurs. It’s not yet clear why herpes crops up in some and not others, though researchers speculate it stems from dysfunction in the immune system.
HSV2 is somewhat less common, found in approximately 12% of the sexually active, adult population. However, the US Centers for Disease Control believe that many more may be developing genital warts that stem from HSV1, as a result of oral sex.
This may very well have been Crowe’s initiation into the vast, global herpes club — as the initial infection and outbreak (known as primary herpes) likely prompted Crowe’s flu-like symptoms, such as body aches, fever and headache, alongside the rash.