Herpes (simplex) is not so easily disposed of. The word "herpes" means a sore made up of clusters of tiny blisters or vesicles. When used alone, the word usually refers to herpes simplex as distinguished from herpes zoster a quite different disease popularly known as "shingles."

Nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) and vulvovaginitis (NGV) are a pair of clinical miscellanies into which some doctors throw genital candidiasis and trichomoniasis as well as a lot of other things. The principal importance of the category apart from the fact that it entails diseases of men (and usually not of women) and of women (and usually not of men) is that these are conditions suspected of being gonorrhea in which no evidence of the gonococcus is found.

Microscopic yeasts called Candida (commonest species Candida albicans, also called Monilia albicans) are part of the normal microbic life in the vagina and are normally harmless, so that merely finding them there in a microscope slide or culture has no special significance.

Here are some of the more important "controversial" diseases: Condyloma acuminatum, or venereal warts, or genital warts, are thought to be ordinary warts that happen to be found on genital surfaces. Warts are benign tumors of the skin. There are different kinds.

Similar reasoning applies to some of the other diseases that have been loosely included in the VD category. This is a wide and miscellaneous collection, hard to characterize as a group in a few words. Some can be transmitted by sexual intercourse but have other ways of getting around as well.