Don't Judge

In my practice, I get patients with herpes simplex virus in the eye. It's treatable and I tell my patients so.

But I realized that some people think that HSV infection is a a sexually transmitted disease. There are actually 2 types of HSV, one of which is NOT in any way related to sex.

Some of these people protest that they are faithful to their partners (who also say that they are faithful) and there is no way that they could acquire the infection. While having more than one partner is not as big an issue now as it was a generation ago, STD seems to be still a stigma that people try to avoid. Some people avoid getting seen by a doctor if they think they have an STD problem and hence avoid treatment.

The point of all this is to not be judgmental. The eyes of society are powerful deterrents for people. They would rather hide than seek treatment if it means that they will feel "less" in the eyes of society.