How do you get herpes? Part II - An "innocent childhood infection," or an STD?

We have found this on the Web, too, and it seems to be a proper thing to quote on this blog as well:

Isn't it funny how "diseases" are defined by how they are aquired ONLY in the case of those sexually transmitted?

HSV1 (more commonly known as the cold sore virus) becomes an STD ONLY if one is infected with it genitally. (Meaning that one managed to be extra cautious or lucky, and avoided getting cold sores for their entire life - which made them susceptible to getting type 1 genitally as an adult. How ironic.)

Another thing that bugs me - why does it suddenly become a "disease" once transmitted genitally? I have never heard anyone refer to someone with cold sores as having a disease. And cold sores are the same exact virus, but recur much more frequently and are way more contageous than is someone with an HSV1 genital infection.

So why is it being defined simply on how it was transmitted, but only when it was done so sexually? When orally transmitted, we don't call it a KTD (kissing transmitted disease.) I know a small number of people also get it orally from sharing forks and cups and whatnot, but the majority get it from kissing, even if it's an aunt's innocent peck.

We don't call malaria or lyme disease ITDs (insect transmitted disease) or typhoid fever a FTD (feces transmitted disease.)

But we do need to forever label those who happened to aquire a common infection during, god forbid, a sexual scenario - no matter how "innocent" that scenario was, including between husband and wife?

I'm not buying into it.

We aren't either.