Scientists are currently studying possible vaccines in their search for a cure for herpes. This is despite eight decades of effort to develop a vaccine. It will still be a long time before these experiments lead to the first human trials of gene therapy to cure herpes. Jerome estimates that there are at least three years to go.
I've had herpes for as long as I can remember, and it's likely that I contracted the virus when I was a small child clutching my mother's face. Over the decades, I've spent a considerable amount of time thinking about how to skip work, school, and social events. When I was hiding from the world, I tried all the available home remedies, topical creams and ointments, and antiviral medications. Unfortunately, there is no cure for herpes, only options to limit or prevent outbreaks.
However, a new vaccine on the horizon could change the rules of the game. In close, monogamous relationships, transmission risks can be weighed against other relationship problems, such as intimacy and pregnancy. While there is no cure for herpes, the severity of the virus varies over the lifespan of an infected person. According to the World Health Organization, two-thirds of the world's population under 50 are carriers of the herpes simplex virus type 1, or HSV-1, which mainly causes cold sores, while 491 million people between the ages of 15 and 49 are infected with the closely related HSV-2, which is the cause of sexually transmitted genital herpes.
Advances in herpes cure research over the past five years are largely due to a series of improvements in gene-editing tools. Keith Jerome began to explore the idea that lifelong herpes virus infections could be cured by using gene therapy tools to cut DNA.
