Ray as with any etiology, it takes time for things to reach a critical mass where it actually becomes epidemic, a phrase Gillison often uses when talking about HPV. It is a matter of social behaviors combining with a transferable agent (a virus in this case) and mathematical issues that allow a single person to take something and give it to another, who gives it to three more, who give it to 9 more, who give it to 20 more, who give it to a hundred more, until it because so common place that someone pays attention. Some have speculated that the free love era of the 60-70's accelerated something that would have happened anyway over a longer period of time, and we are just born into a slice of that time line. Be thankful you were not born into a time of black plague.... life could always be worse it seems.