Sex and the City was a U.S. cable TV mainstay for several seasons as it tracked the life and loves (numerous sexual encounters) of four fictional single New York women. No sooner had the series gone off the air than plans started for a feature-length movie sequel.

It's ironic timing that the week after the movie hit U.S. theaters, a city health department study found that more than one in four adult New Yorkers (26 percent) are infected with the sexually transmissible disease genital herpes. That's considerably higher than the already-high national rate of about 19 percent (nearly 1 in 5).

Herpes causes painful sores in some of those infected by it, although most show no recognizable symptoms. In New York the herpes rate is higher among women, blacks and homosexual men. Those infected by genital herpes have double the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. (Source: Associated Press, June 9, 2008.)