Australian woman discovers she had herpes after finding a small mark on her forehead: Taneesha

A young woman was shocked to learn the true cause of a small cut that developed on her forehead during a music festival she attended after graduating high school.

Taneesha, from Melbourne, discovered that the wound was actually a ‘huge cold sore’ caused by herpes after it became progressively worse within a matter of days.

Doctors originally thought that the then 18 year old’s wound was sunburn and sent her home from the ER, but she became so ill she ended up bed-bound in hospital for almost a week.

Taneesha, 23, is now telling her story to raise awareness about the little-known issue.

Type one of the Herpes simplex virus (HSV), known as herpes, is typically transmitted by oral-to-oral contact. Type two is mainly sexually transmitted and causes genital herpes. 

Taneesha (pictured), from Melbourne, was shocked to learn that a small cut that developed on her forehead from a music festival was actually herpes

Before and after: Doctors originally though that the then 18 year old’s wound was sunburn and sent her home from the ER. The wound became progressively worse and turned out to be a huge cold sore caused by herpes

Taneesha contracted the infection after attending Falls music festival for the first time, she has never attended since due to the scary incident.

‘So five years ago I finished school and I went to Falls, and when I got home I was so sick,’ Taneesha said. 

‘I couldn’t keep any food down, I couldn’t keep any water down. I couldn’t sleep because I was having cold sweats.’

She explained that she went to the emergency department but was sent home as they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her.

‘I just had what looked like sunburn on my forehead, it started off not even that bad, the doctors told me to put some tea tree on it, saying “it’s probably just a little infection from sunburn or something”.

The young woman revealed that within a couple of days the wound had gotten progressively worse and began to scab.

‘I remember going to the pharmacist and she was like “OMG are you okay did you fall over?”

Taneesha became so ill she ended up being bed bound in hospital for almost a week. She is now telling her story to raise awareness about the little-known issue

‘I was so embarrassed,’ Taneesha admitted.

When the cut kept getting worse she visited her doctor who thought it may be a staph infection, however a swab proved the theory wrong and the young woman was rushed to hospital to find an answer.

‘I ended up in the hospital with it because I was so sick and I ended up being there for five days,’ she said.

The doctors discovered that alongside the wound she had been suffering with glandular fever, which is why she felt so ill.

They still couldn’t figure out what the cut was and thought it may have been shingles but tests came back negative, after five days of hospital tests they discovered it was herpes.

Doctors first though the wound was sunburn, then speculated it could be a staph infection or shingles. They still aren’t sure exactly how Taneesha picked herpes up, but said it may have been from simply brushing off an infected person in the crowd as her immunity was very low at the time

‘Specialists said that herpes and shingles are from the same family so they can behave in similar manners,’ Taneesha explained.

‘Basically it was a huge cold sore on my face.’

Doctors still aren’t sure exactly how she picked it up, but said it may have been from simply brushing against an infected person in the crowd as her immunity was very low at the time.

She revealed that a big worry was that the wound might scar, however, after it was treated correctly it healed quickly. 

‘It did take a lot of time but there’s not really any noticeable scarring left,’ Taneesha said.