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What
is Herpes?  |
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| Genital
Herpes & Cold Sores are an infection caused by a virus
known as herpes simplex. The Herpes simplex virus is an incurable
conduction that has infected people for centuries and doesn’t
have a cure. There
are two different types of the herpes simplex virus (HSV),
Herpes HSV1 (cold sores) and HSV2 (genital herpes). Both
oral herpes (cold sores) and genital herpes can flare-up
at any time during your lifetime and are highly contagious.
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| If
someone is infected with the HSV1 or HSV2 virus the majority
of people will have no or minimal signs or symptoms. When
symptoms do occur, they usually appear as one or a cluster
of blisters on or around the genitals, rectum and mouth. These
blisters will then break, leaving sensitive ulcers/sores that
may take two to four weeks to heal. Typically,
another outbreak can appear weeks or months after the first,
but it almost always is less severe and shorter than the
first outbreak. Although the infection will stay in your
body throughout your life, the number of outbreaks tends
to decrease over a period of years.
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How
common is genital herpes? |
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| Studies
have shown that the vast majority (80-90%) of people who have
genital herpes have not been diagnosed.
Statistics show that as many as 40% of the
American population are carrying a form of HSV, although
some estimate this number to be as high as 80%. This is
one reason that herpes can spread so easily.
However a large percentage of these people will not know
they have the virus as they have never shown any symptoms.
This is because the HSV virus can lie dormant in a person’s
body for years.
There
are over 50 million people in the USA with the genital herpes
virus, this is 20% of the population. Although there are
millions of people who are unaware they have it making the
real figure a lot higher.
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How
do people get genital herpes? |
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| Herpes
HSV1 is usually caught via skin to skin contact such as kissing
and is the virus that causes cold sores. Herpes HSV2 is caught
via sexual intercourse, and is responsible for genital herpes.
Transmission can occur from an infected partner who does not
have a visible sore and may not know that he or she is infected.
The
HSV1 virus which causes Cold Sores can surprisingly also
cause genital herpes. This can be caused by oral-genital
or genital-genital contact with a person who has HSV1 infection.
Genital HSV1 outbreaks reoccur less often than genital HSV2
outbreaks.
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What
are the symptoms/signs of genital herpes? |
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| If
you develop some symptoms, they can be quite pronounced, especially
if it is your first outbreak. The first outbreak usually occurs
within a month after the virus has been contracted. Other
symptoms during a first outbreak can also include flu-like
symptoms such as getting a fever and developing swollen glands.
However, the vast majority of people (80-90%) who have genital
herpes never develop blisters/sores, or they have very mild
signs that they do not even notice. They may just dismiss
them as insect bites or another skin conditiony
(see
condictions confussed with herpes). |
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Are
there complication with genital herpes? |
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| The
Blisters/sores that are caused from genital herpes can be
very severe. But along with this comes the psychological distress
people can develop. In addition, genital herpes can lead to
potentially fatal infections in babies. If a woman has a herpes
outbreak during pregnancy a caesarean delivery is will be
performed to avoid transmission to the new born baby. Fortunately,
infection of a baby from a woman with herpes infection is
rare. Herpes
also plays a small role in spreading HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS. Herpes can make people more susceptible to
HIV infection. In fact the risk of you catching HIV increases
by 2 to 4 times, as HSV2 is an ulcerative disease.
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How
is genital herpes diagnosed? |
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visiting a sexual health clinic a doctor can carry out a visual
inspection if the outbreak is typical, and can take a sample
from the blisters/sores and sent it off to be tested in a
laboratory. If
you are not having an outbreak but want to be tested for
HSV, a blood test can be taken. This test will detect HSV1
or HSV2 within your body, although the results are not always
clear-cut.
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Is
there a treatment for genital herpes? |
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| Sadly
there is no treatment that can cure herpes, once you are infected
with the virus you will have it for the rest of your life.
However treatments can shorten and prevent outbreaks during
the period of time such as immune system tablets.
There
are side effects that come with prescription drugs such
as; sickness, headaches, nausea, vision changes, unusual
decrease in urine production, hair loss, aggressive behaviour
and depression, joint pain, severe pain on muscles, burning
and extreme pain while urinating! However there's alternatives
to these drugs . . . Every non prescription HSV herpes treatment
available on this website are effective, painless and are
a safe ways of treating the HSV virus, including vagina,
penis, and oral herpes, without any scarring, burning, skin
irritation or any unwanted side effects.
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Herpes
