Treatment may include antiviral medications such as acyclovir or valacyclovir. There is no cure for genital herpes. However, daily use of antiviral medications can prevent or shorten outbreaks. Antiviral medicines can also reduce your chance of infecting it to others.
No medication can get rid of the herpes virus. However, your doctor may prescribe an antiviral medication, such as acyclovir, to prevent the virus from multiplying. There is no cure for herpes simplex. Once you have the virus, it's a lifelong infection.
Genital herpes is probably the most dreaded and least known sexually transmitted infection (STI). There is no cure, so people infected with herpes have it forever. While the virus is rarely life-threatening for most people who suffer from it, it is extremely dangerous for pregnant women. A virus outbreak during pregnancy increases your risk of premature birth and the fetus can get a fatal infection in the womb.
After a person has an initial outbreak of genital herpes, they are likely to have more because herpes never completely goes away. Neonatal herpes (at birth) puts a baby at risk of blindness, brain damage, skin infections, and death. Outbreaks of oral herpes can last two to three weeks, which may be less than the two to six weeks after an outbreak of genital herpes. Many new herpes infections occur by couples who transmit the virus asymptomatically, so condoms are strongly recommended.
This form of herpes can cause internal and external sores and blisters in the genital area, which may appear several days, weeks, or months after exposure. A person with an oral herpes outbreak may first feel itchy, burning, or tingling around the mouth, lips, or tongue. This is because genital herpes can cause skin breaks and make a person more vulnerable to HIV infection. Taking a small dose of anti-herpetic medicines every day can reduce the number of outbreaks by more than 90%.
Many people who discover that they have herpes become depressed because they know that they will always have the virus and that they can transmit it to others. Most people don't realize that sores caused by genital herpes can appear both on the face and in the genital area. Because a person may not have symptoms even if they have herpes, it can be difficult to know when to see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment. Shingles, also called herpes zoster, is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV), which causes chickenpox earlier in life.
Genital herpes cannot be transmitted to another part of the body, such as the arm, leg, or hand, after the first infection. If you have blisters in your genital area, your doctor may request a test to determine if you have genital herpes. If you know you have genital herpes before you become pregnant, your doctor will monitor your condition throughout your pregnancy. Oral herpes is mainly caused by HSV-1, although it's also possible to have an HSV-2 infection around the mouth.
