A Winnipeg-based matchmaking company, Camelot Introductions, has added a division that focusses on matching up people with genital herpes, but no longer accepts clients who smoke, due to a lack of interest by other clients. That's right, people would rather date someone with genital herpes than a smoker.
Camelot's Lianne Tregobov says they added the herpes situation to the questionnaire after several people asked for help in finding a mate who wouldn't be deterred by the infection. Now, Tregobov says clients are often amenable to dating someone with herpes, even if they don't have it themselves.
"We don't necessarily match two people with herpes together, we match based on compatibility and based on acceptance. Every single person is asked, are you open to it? Yes or no," she explained.
A disillusioned Camelot client named Sherry, who sounds as if she's taken her share of fire in the dating trenches, said "I would not be opposed to be matched with a man that had stated they have [herpes] because just as many men who don't state they have it, have it."
According to statistics, about one in six people aged fourteen to forty-nine have genital herpes, with many passing on the condition, unaware they even have it. Another Camelot client named Jill protests, "We're not lepers, it's not AIDS…it's just a rash. It's no more different than having a cold sore on your face."
