What is Herpes and How to Deal With It?

It is a short term used for herpes simplex which is a viral infection. It causes cold sores, fever blisters or blemishes on the skin, especially on the face, lips and in the genital area.

It is very common in all animals and many herpes viruses are responsible for it. However, Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) type 1 and type 2 are the most common viruses that are responsible for the disease in humans.

It is a contagious infection which generally transmits through skin-to-skin contacts.

Every care should be taken to ensure that others are not infected by you if you have a fever blister or cold sore. Kissing, sharing cups, plates, spoons, lip balms, face towels, etc. which can cause infections in others should all be avoided.

Even if it is dormant for many years in one partner, it can still be transmitted to the other partner with sex.

Unborn babies can get the infection through their pregnant mothers. Therefore it is important to let the doctors know your history of genital herpes so that the doctors can take precautionary measure to save the baby from infection.

During the first episode of herpes or in the first time experience, the patients can recall that it lasted longer than the next episodes. This is because the first time when the body’s immune system deals with the herpes virus it fights for longer period but doesn’t get success. Therefore the first episodes can last up to 3-4 weeks. At this stage pain relief from herpes becomes crucial.The symptoms of herpes in the first episodes are more severe as there can be multiple instances of herpes taking shape simultaneously.

These infections are chronic and the infection occurs on and off lifelong. So what is the Herpes cure?? Well, there are therapies, but no cures. In a healthy individual, the immune system resolves the symptoms, but it can't completely get rid of it from the body, because the virus resides and hides in a dormant state in some of our nerve root cells. It evades the immune system through the nervous roots it enters in an inactive phase during which it appears to cause no symptoms and no harm.

Though most of the time the virus is dormant but intermittently it can reactivates from dormancy. Certain triggers may cause reproduction of viruses in greater numbers and travels the nerve pathways again, reaching the skin or certain mucous membranes in huge quantities to be contagious. Symptoms may or may not be visible during such attacks.

Learn more about causes, symptoms, prevention methods and herpes home remedies in the other related articles:

What is Herpes and How to Deal With It?

Other related articles