It seems festival goers got a lot more than they bargained for at the massive weekend festival. Reports are flooding news outlets regarding an outbreak of Herpes at Coachella, one of the biggest music festivals in the country.
Held in Indio, California, this festival hosts over thousands of attendees who fly in from all over the country to witness their favorite musical acts.
HerpAlert is a website where users can send images of their ailments for diagnosis and receive a prescription treatment for the disease. Though Herpes can’t be cured, a prescription can treat symptoms. Normally the site issues about 12 diagnoses a day, but between April 12 and 21, in which both Coachella weekends took place, the site had over 250 cases reported per day.
Adding the numbers up, that’s about 1,150 cases in the towns surrounding the festival location, including Indio, Palm Desert, and Coachella Valley. Not to mention nearby Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange.
Symptoms of the STD include painful blisters, ulcers, or open sores near the affected area. It can be transmitted through the mouth or through sexual intercourse.
Many festival-goers attended Coachella weekend hoping to catch a glimpse of their fave celebrities walking the grounds, maybe show off their outfit for Instagram, and see their favorite musical acts. But it seems that now that both weekends are over, some attendees have to find out the hard way that what happens in Coachella, doesn’t always stay in Coachella.
