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How to understand this title?

 
 
Reply Thu 18 Mar, 2010 07:50 am
The title is a bit stunning: Your partner has herpes " now the good news .

We all know that "Your partner has herpes " the bad news!" Now the author says it is "good news". Why bad news? Because your partner has herpes, so you will lose him/her. And now, why good news? The author tells us that a vaccine will be delivered soon as a cure for the herpes, and your partner who has herpes will become healthy and be safe to you, you will not lose him/her. That is why it is now the good news.

The author has used a rhetoric device here to first confuse you and then enlighten you. A disguised "dilemma", how humourous!

That is how I understand the title. Am I on the right track?



Context:

Your partner has herpes " now the good news 17:11 11 March 2010 by Linda Geddes


The love of your life has genital herpes: do you sleep with them anyway? It's a dilemma that could vanish if a new approach to a herpes vaccine is successful.

The vaccine fights the herpes simplex 2 virus (HSV2), which coexists with the humans it infects for long periods, only rarely causing bouts of sores. It achieves this feat by suppressing its host's immune system, and this has meant attempts to use the virus itself as a vaccine have failed.

Now researchers at BioVex in Woburn, Massachusetts, have produced a vaccine by deleting five of the virus's genes. "We hope this will unmask the virus to the human immune system," says Robert Coffin, chief executive of BioVex.

The altered virus neither causes disease nor suppresses our immune system. Animals that had been injected with the altered virus did not develop symptoms when exposed to normal HSV2. BioVex will now begin clinical trials of the vaccine in London.

Partner vaccine
A vaccine would initially be offered to the sexual partners of people who carry genital herpes, says Coffin. Wider vaccination may also be a possibility, he says.

Marian Nicholson, director of the Herpes Viruses Association in the UK, which monitors worldwide research into herpes, is hopeful. "BioVex says they are building on the information gained from previous trials, and it seems reasonable that at some point a breakthrough will be made."

A herpes vaccine also based on HSV2 and developed by GlaxoSmithKline about a decade ago showed early promise. But later trials in humans suggested that it was no more effective at preventing genital herpes than having a history of cold sores, which are caused by the related virus HSV1.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18637-your-partner-has-herpes--now-the-good-news.html
 
MontereyJack
 
  3  
Reply Thu 18 Mar, 2010 08:17 am
There's a stock situation in English, which often starts out with something like "I have good news for you and bad--which would you rather hear first?", the dilemma being, if you know something good you won't be disheartened by hearing something bad, or would you rather know the worst first so anything after that can't help but make you feel somewhat better. There are all kinds of jokes built around that opposition:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodNewsBadNews

the writer here is playing off that situation where someone simultaneously knocks you down and picks you up.
boomerang
 
  2  
Reply Thu 18 Mar, 2010 08:20 am
I think the title refers to asking someone what they want to hear first - the good news or the bad news.

Most people want the bad news first.

The bad news is your partner has herpes -- the good news is that there is effective treatment.

They aren't saying the good news is that your partner has herpes.
oristarA
 
  1  
Reply Thu 18 Mar, 2010 08:34 am
@boomerang,
Thank you.

But who will agree with me? Smile
0 Replies
 
oristarA
 
  1  
Reply Thu 18 Mar, 2010 08:36 am
@MontereyJack,
Thank you MJ.
0 Replies
 
 

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