Every Thing about Genital Herpes
- Structure of Herpes Virus
Genital herpes, or cold sores of the genital area, is considered a venereal disease because it is usually transmitted by sexual contact. Affecting more than 500,000 Americans each year, genital herpes is reportedly the most prevalent venereal disease among young Americans today, its incidence being greater than both gonorrhea and syphilis.
The threat of genital herpes has become so widespread that many young, unmarried Americans have altered their sexual behavior to prevent contracting the disease. People are becoming more cautious about casual” sex and thinking twice about the “one-night stand.”
Like cold sores on the mouth and lips, genital herpes is transmitted by a virus. This virus is usually transmitted by direct sexual contact (genital to genital or mouth to genital) with a person who has an active herpes infection. There is even the risk of contracting the herpes virus from a towel or drinking cup or tester lipstick used by a person with open lesions. Given the opportunity, this virus can infect any portion of the body surface of a susceptible person. What is particularly disturbing are the unpredictable recurrences of these genital infections in the same person, at the same site, with a frequency that can be distressing, embarrassing and, at times, disabling. Fortunately, however, the herpes virus infections have a tendency to become milder with each recurrence.
How do you know if you have genital herpes? The average incubation period, that is, from the time of contact to when you first notice the symptoms, is roughly a week. Any number of signs and symptoms may precede or accompany a herpes infection of the genital region. These can include itching, mild burning and prickling sensations, pain during urination and sexual intercourse, fever, headache, and swollen lymph glands in the groin area.
Small groups of blisters commonly appear at the infected site, usually around the vagina or on the penis. These blisters break down in a few days leaving painful, shallow ulcers that, when not complicated by any other infection; heal in about a week to ten days.
For some people, a genital herpes infection is a painful, swollen inflammation. For others, the infection is relatively mild and transient, with few or no symptoms. People who are completely asymptomatic, and there are many, may act as reservoirs, or “carriers,” for the disease, unknowingly affecting their sex partners. And so the question often posed by a spouse or a friend, “Who gave you (me) this herpes infection?” cannot be answered with any certainty.
If you develop a herpes infection a week after sex relations, you have not necessarily contracted herpes from your sex partner. The friction of intercourse may very well have activated a dormant herpes virus in your body.
And while the primary infection (meaning the first time one is afflicted with the condition) is acquired by direct sexual contact (genital to genital or mouth to genital), recurrences of genital herpes infections generally represent reactivation of a latent, hidden virus, rather than reinfection.
What causes these reactivations, these recurrences, and what are some of the triggering mechanisms? No one really knows.
After an active herpes episode, the virus retreats to and remains quietly hidden in a nerve root, thus making treatment difficult or impossible. After weeks, months, or even years, the virus, stirred up by any number of mechanisms, travels down the nerve path and reappears on the skin, starting up a new batch of small blisters with all the symptoms of the earlier herpes infection. Some of the reactivating mechanisms that have been implicated in provoking recurrences include mechanical injury, masturbation, sexual intercourse, fever, gastrointestinal upsets, sunburn, fatigue, overexertion, sleeplessness, poor nutrition, menstruation, psychic stress, and even sauna baths!
What is particularly disturbing about genital herpes is its serious consequences. Extensive herpes of the genital organs can cause excruciating pain during urination and sexual intercourse.
The consequences for pregnant women are especially grim. Genital herpes is three times more common in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women and results in a higher incidence of miscarriages and premature births.
Newborns who are infected during birth are unable to combat the virus with their immature immune systems. Thus, if an, active genital herpes is present at the time of delivery; it can cause a devastating or fatal infection in the newborn as the infant passes through the birth canal. Therefore, most doctors recommend a Caesarean section for women who have an active herpes infection just before delivery.
In addition, women with genital herpes infections run a five times greater risk of cancer of the cervix. And for both women and men, there is a much higher incidence of other venereal infections, such as gonorrhea and syphilis.
There is a new test that takes just four hours to detect herpes simplex virus infections. This will help women avoid unnecessary Caesarean sections and it will help patients with herpes infections of the eye get prompt, often sight-saving, treatment.
While effective treatment for herpes is poor at best, you should consult your physician to try to prevent complications that could lead to severe secondary bacterial infection and spread of the disease.
Treatment of the active infection consists mainly of relieving the Genital Herpes symptoms:
* Reduce the inflammation and swelling with warm baths or continuous compresses using cool, whole milk.
* Relieve the pain and itching with aspirin, antihistamines, and appropriate topical medications prescribed by your physician.
* Control any secondary bacterial and yeast infection, again with medications prescribed by your doctor.
* Since urine can cause excruciating pain and stinging of vulvar lesions in women, protect those delicate areas with zinc oxide paste.
As far as specific treatments for herpes, there are as many different kinds as there are doctors. Everything works-and nothing works.
Past and present treatments have included applying cortisonelike antibiotic creams and ointments, ice cubes, ether, nail polish remover, liquid nitrogen, cortisone-type sprays, and a dozen different other topical (surface) medications. None of these treatments has yet withstood the test of time, but many doctors will still swear by their particular method.
One theory suggests that oral contraceptives help to prevent recurrences. Women taking the birth control pills report fewer recurrences than women who do not. There is also some evidence that the chemicals in most contraceptive foams have an antiviral effect on the genital herpes virus.
The only proven treatment for genital herpes, and the only one that Food and Drug Administration has cleared, is acyclovir, a prescription capsule that goes under the trade name of Zovirax. Acyclovir, the first antiviral agent to be effective against genital herpes, is not a cure, and there is no proof that it prevents the spread of genital herpes. But it does relieve the symptoms, it reduces the shedding of the virus, and it shortens the duration of an attack. If taken for at least six months, three capsules a day may reduce the frequency and the severity of recurrent episodes of genital herpes.
Also sold as an ointment, acyclovir will usually alleviate the symptoms of burning and itching and help speed up the healing process for an initial episode of genital herpes.
Unfortunately, we cannot eradicate the virus by simply treating the local infection. For those of you who have genital herpes, I leave you with this sobering thought: you have it for life. And every time it recurs, it can potentially infect other people.
Here are a few suggestions, however, to prevent spread of the Genital Herpes:
* Practice good genital hygiene. That means “soap and water.”
* Wear loose, soft, cotton clothing and avoid rubbing and chafing.
* If you’re uncircumcised and have recurrent genital herpes, I recommend circumcision.
* When you have oral or genital lesions, don’t have sex. . Use a barrier method of contraception (condoms, spermicidal jellies, contraceptive foams, and diaphragm) if you are unsure whether you or your partner are actively infected.
The cure for these herpes infections will ultimately come when someone discovers an antiviral antibiotic that will destroy the virus in its dormant lair, the nerve root. And, if we are able to produce a safe vaccine such as those given to children in a single dose, herpes, like polio, smallpox, influenza, typhoid, and diphtheria, will forever be eradicated.