Coachella Film festival 2019: Unprotected intercourse linked to spike in Herpes cases

Reported cases of herpes have reportedly skyrocketed in areas surrounding the ongoing two weekends Coachella film festival. According to reports, there’s been a 2,083% increase of Herpes cases since the festival's first weekend. This increase in the STD is reportedly being linked to the film festival in southern California.

According to STD diagnosis app HerpAlert, there’s been a 2,083% increase in reported herpes cases in Indio, California and the surrounding area since Coachella’s first weekend.  The site normally sees about 16 cases on a given day, but that number bump up to 250 during Coachella’s first day. This year, HerpAlert says it diagnosed 1,105 herpes cases in Southern California (including Indio, Palm Desert, Coachella Valley, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, regions where many festival goers reside) during the festival Dr. Lynn Marie Morski from online herpes treatment service HerpAlert told PEOPLE that they normally handle 12 cases a day in southern California, but during the first two days of the music festival earlier this month they received almost 250 inquires, which is ten times more than their average. The largest spike in herpes cases came during the 2018 Oscars weekend where it reported saw 60 cases of Herpes per day.

Founded two years ago, HerpAlert is an online service that allows users to send photos of their possible infection for clinical evaluation and prescription treatment.