There is no cure for genital herpes. However, there are medications that can prevent or shorten outbreaks. A daily anti-herpetic medication may reduce your chances of transmitting the infection to your sexual partner (s). However, daily use of antiviral medications can prevent or shorten outbreaks.
Antiviral medicines can also reduce your chance of infecting it to others. HSV causes herpes and can affect the mouth or genitals. There is currently no cure for the virus, but there are treatments that can reduce the symptoms and infectiousness of the disease. No, there is no cure for herpes.
Once people are infected, they will always be carriers of the herpes virus. However, in most cases, herpes outbreaks decrease and weaken over the course of a few years. They usually end in five or six years. There is no cure for herpes simplex.
Once you have the virus, it's a lifelong infection. Sometimes, a herpes infection can affect other parts of the body, such as the eyes or other parts of the skin. However, there is currently no vaccine that can help prevent the spread of herpes, so a person should use appropriate protection and precautions when having sex with other people. If you have an active infection at the time of delivery, you can transmit the herpes virus to your baby.
If a person contracts any form of herpes virus infection, they will have it for life, whether they have symptoms or not. However, if they experience any symptoms related to herpes, they should ask all their recent sexual partners if they have or may have oral or genital herpes. If you have blisters in your genital area, your doctor may request a test to determine if you have genital herpes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 40 to 50 million adults in the United States have genital herpes.
Experts suggest that even if antiviral drugs destroy the active parts of the infection, only a small amount of the virus is needed to hide in nerve cells and remain inactive so that the herpes virus continues to persist in the body. Many new herpes infections occur by couples who transmit the virus asymptomatically, so condoms are strongly recommended. For example, if someone has never had herpes but then has oral and genital sex with an infected partner, they can get the infection on both sites. Genital herpes cannot be transmitted to another part of the body, such as the arm, leg, or hand, after the first infection.
A person with herpes who is transmitting the virus can be contagious even if they have no lesions or symptoms, which is why the patient population with genital herpes caused by HSV I is believed to be increasing. If you know you have genital herpes before you become pregnant, your doctor will monitor your condition throughout your pregnancy. Although several clinical trials have tested vaccines against genital herpes, there is currently no vaccine available to prevent infection. When a person experiences a prodrome and suspects that a recurrence will occur, they begin taking antiherpetic medications that reduce symptoms and shorten the duration of the outbreak.
If you have herpes, you should also get tested for HIV (AIDS) and other STIs (such as syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia).
