If they are honest, they can only count the ones who have been diagnosed. They can only guess to get a number of those who don't know they have it and have no symptoms.
I don't remember when I had my first fever blister on the lip when I was a child but I certainly was not sexually active as a child. I've had fever blisters occasionally through life but was always in a monogamous relationship and never anything but that. If simplex one is the only thing that causes a fever blister, then I got it as a child. My parents were married when I was born and stayed married throughout their lives. They were religious and had high standards about behavior and I lived by those rules, too.
Who knew a lip fever blister was a bad thing? Did anyone tell their perspective partner in those days, “By the way, I sometimes have a lip fever blister so you may not want to marry me.”
I read that whole article, and it said simplex one, the lip fever blister, can also cause blisters on the sex organ. I have never heard of that happening - never happened to me. I wonder if there is something else that can cause a lip fever blister? Is it only simplex one that can do that? I need to research that.
People with fever blisters - oral herpes - need to know there’s another form of herpes most people haven’t heard of: ocular herpes, which is one of the leading causes of blindness, actually. It can be passed from someone with active cold sores to another person’s or their own eye.
Its symptoms are occasionally confused with pinkeye but it’s far more unpleasant and serious. I got my infection as an eight year old from a grandmother with cold sores who knew not to kiss me near my lips but didn’t realize my eye was a problem. It’s not fun and I wish more people knew about it so they could take the proper steps.