Understanding Genital Herpes and the Relevant Implications

Genital herpes is a disease that most educated people know about throughout the world. The reason for this is simply the widespread nature of the disease. However, apart from the fact that genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease, most people do not know anything else about the disease. Unfortunately, most sexually transmitted diseases are so sly that knowing about them is the only way that they can be spotted. Hence, the following is some information relevant to genital herpes.

Defining genital herpes

As explained above, genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease. It is caused by two types of viruses, namely the Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) and the Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2). Of the two, the latter is much more widespread than the former. Genital herpes spreads through sexual contact, whether there is some visual mark on the infected person or not. This means that genital herpes does not need any kind of break from the skin like a sore or rash to spread from one person to another.

Symptoms of genital herpes

Genital herpes, as a disease, is particularly hard to spot because of the way its symptoms show up. As a result of this difficulty, most people with the disease are not even aware of the fact that they have it. Typically, genital herpes shows itself in the form of outbreaks of blisters near the genitals or rectum. These blisters break leaving behind sensitive ulcers or sores which also heal after a period of two to four weeks. Following this outbreak, there may be more outbreaks at a later stage. However, the following outbreaks are usually less severe and do not last as long. The first outbreak, more often than not, shows up in less than two weeks of the person being infected. During this outbreak, some symptoms that can crop up include another set of sores, flu like symptoms like fever, and swelling. It is worth stating that these symptoms are mostly very mild and, hence, are ignored by the infected person. A typical characteristic of genital herpes is that it makes the infected person much more susceptible to the risks of contracting HIV.

Special considerations

Most people think that a person infected with genital herpes would show visible signs. Furthermore, many people also think that unless a person is in the middle of an outbreak, the virus cannot spread. On the contrary, genital herpes is infectious even if the infected person is not currently in the midst of a blister outbreak. In different words, irrespective of whether a person is going through an outbreak, he or she can spread the disease to another person.

Treatment of genital herpes

Unfortunately, there is no known cure for genital herpes. However, there are techniques and procedures that reduce the impact of the disease. For example, a person suffering from genital herpes can take antiviral medication which will result in the outbreaks either being eliminated completely or being shortened. However, the effect is not lasting which means that the person has to stay on medication.