How To Protect Against Herpes

Symptoms Of Genital Herpes

Many people who have genital herpes may not be aware they have the infection, because they may not have any symptoms.

The first episode of herpes can cause considerable pain and distress. Symptoms of the first episode may include:

• flu-like symptoms such as feeling unwell, headaches and pains in the back and legs, with or without enlarged glands in the groin
• small blisters around the genitals these break open to form shallow, painful ulcers, which scab over and heal after one to two weeks
• small cracks in the skin with or without an itch or tingling
• redness or a distinct rash
• some people also have considerable pain and swelling in the genital area, and hence may have additional pain and difficulty passing urine.

How Can I Find Out If I Have Genital Herpes

Go to your doctor and get tested. A doctor may take a sample from what appears to be a genital herpes sore and send it to a lab for testing.

You can also get a blood test. The blood test looks for antibodies to the virus that your immune system would have made if you were infected. The second type of herpes simplex virus, HSV-2, almost always infects the genitals, so if a test shows antibodies to HSV-2 in your blood, you probably have genital herpes. A blood test that shows antibodies to the other type of herpes virus, HSV-1, means you could have genital or oral herpes. That’s because oral herpes, which is usually caused by HSV-1, can spread to the genitals during oral sex.

Can I Breastfeed If I Have Genital Herpes

Yes, you can breastfeed if you have genital herpes, but not if you have a herpes sore on one of your breasts. If you have genital herpes, it is possible to spread the infection to any part of your breast, including your nipple and areola.

If you have any genital herpes sores on one or both of your breasts:

• You can keep breastfeeding as long as your baby or pumping equipment does not touch a herpes sore.
• Do not breastfeed from the breast with sores. Herpes is spread through contact with sores and can be dangerous to a newborn baby.
• Pump or hand-express your milk from the breast with sores until the sores heal. Pumping will help keep up your milk supply and prevent your breast from getting overly full and painful. You can store your milk to give to your baby in a bottle for another feeding. But if parts of your pump also touch the sore while pumping, throw the milk away.

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Treatment If The Blisters Come Back

Go to a GP or sexual health clinic if you have been diagnosed with genital herpes and need treatment for an outbreak.

Antiviral medicine may help shorten an outbreak by 1 or 2 days if you start taking it as soon as symptoms appear.

But outbreaks usually settle by themselves, so you may not need treatment.

Recurrent outbreaks are usually milder than the first episode of genital herpes.

Over time, outbreaks tend to happen less often and be less severe. Some people never have outbreaks.

Some people who have more than 6 outbreaks in a year may benefit from taking antiviral medicine for 6 to 12 months.

If you still have outbreaks of genital herpes during this time, you may be referred to a specialist.

How Do You Treat Herpes

Theres no cure for herpes, but prescription medications can ease symptoms, end outbreaks sooner, and lower the chances of passing the virus to other people.

You can also help ease the pain caused by herpes outbreaks by taking a warm bath, wearing loose clothing and putting an ice pack on the sores.

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Pathogenesis Of Primary Genital Hsv

Upon sexual transmission, HSV infects epithelial cells in the female genital mucosa. Entry of HSV into a cell occurs primarily by viral fusion and is mediated by engagement of multiple receptors by viral glycoproteins . Once inside the host cell, the de-enveloped capsid introduces viral DNA into the host cell nucleus. Epithelial cells support the lytic replication of HSV, which leads to the rapid death of the host cell. During the lytic cycle, viral genes are transcribed in a cascade-like fashion whereby intermediate-early genes are transcribed first, followed by early and late genes . After the replication cycle is complete, virions are enveloped and are released from the cell. Infectious virions can go on to infect other epithelial cells or can invade nerve endings throughout the tissue.

HSV-2 spreads from the epithelium to the peripheral nervous system during the course of infection. Virus spreads from infected epithelial cells to the neurons through the axon termini within the tissue . Retrograde transport of the de-enveloped capsid to the neuronal cell body is mediated by dynein traveling along mircrotubules that line the length of the axon . Once in the soma, the virus exudes its genetic material into the nucleus and the HSV DNA circularizes to form episomes . HSV-2 does not undergo lytic infection in neurons rather, it is maintained in a latent state until stress and other unknown factors cause reactivation .

Can Genital Herpes Cause Other Problems

For most women, genital herpes does not usually cause serious health problems.

Women with HIV can have severe herpes outbreaks that are long-lasting. Herpes also may play a role in the spread of HIV. Herpes sores can make it easier for HIV to get into your body. Also, herpes can make people who are HIV-positive more likely to spread the infection to someone else.

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Can Genital Herpes Come Back

Yes. Genital herpes symptoms can come and go, but the virus stays inside your body even after all signs of the infection have gone away. The virus becomes “active” from time to time, leading to an outbreak. Some people have outbreaks only once or twice. Other people may have four or five outbreaks within a year. Over time, the outbreaks usually happen less often and are less severe.

Experts do not know what causes the virus to become active. Some women say the virus comes back when they are sick, under stress, out in the sun, or during their period.

Can You Prevent Genital Herpes 100% Of The Time

The best way to prevent the transmission of genital herpes is by utilizing consistent, safe sex practices and abstaining from sex during outbreaks.

While practicing ideal hygiene, such as gently washing genitals and thoroughly cleaning sex toys before/after sex, along with using condoms and dental dams, are effective ways to protect your sexual health and decrease your risk of sexually transmitted infections, they are not 100% effective.

Condoms can sometimes break or slip off during sexual activity. That’s why it’s essential to get tested regularly and have open conversations with your sexual partners about their sexual health and testing practices. â

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Prevention Of Genital Herpes

The best protection against STIs is to always use barrier protection such as condoms, female condoms and dams . Because herpes is spread by skin-to-skin contact, condoms will reduce the risk of transmission, but it will not protect sexual partners completely as condoms do not cover the entire genitals.

Using lubricant with a condom during sex will also reduce the risk of trauma to the genital skin. This has been shown to reduce HSV transmission, especially in the first six months of a sexual relationship. Silicone-based lubricants are recommended.

Remember that herpes transmission can occur when symptoms are present , but may also occur even if there are no genital symptoms through asymptomatic viral shedding.

For people who have frequent episodes of genital herpes, antiviral medication, taken daily, helps to reduce transmission of herpes to a sexual partner.

When Are The Most Contagious Times

The herpes virus is always contagious, even when no symptoms exist. However, the risk of transmission increases significantly when wet, open sores and blisters are present in the midst of an outbreak.

From the time that you begin to feel the itching or burning sensation of developing herpes sores, until your outbreak has completely scabbed and healed, consider the virus highly contagious for your partner.

If youre the susceptible partner in the relationship and want to learn how to not get cold sores from your partner, be sure to abstain from intimate contact until each herpes outbreak has cleared.

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How Likely Is It That I Now Have Genital Herpes Too

That depends on several things, including whether you and your partner always use a condom and how long you’ve been sexually intimate with each other.

If you’ve had sex only once or twice, and if you used a condom each time, the risk is lower than if you’ve had unprotected sex for a long time. But you could have been infected during any one encounter.

Even if you’ve never seen herpes sores on your partner’s genitals or your own, you still might have it. The symptoms of genital herpes are often subtle are easy to mistake for something else, like bug bites, pimples, razor burn, or hemorrhoids. Also, the virus can be contagious even when there are no symptoms.

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Statistics revealed by the World Health Organization show that more than 500 million people in the world suffer from an HSV-2 infection that persists for a lifetime and often triggers a flare-up in response to stress. Both forms of the herpes simplex virus, the HSV-2 and HSV-2 can cause a herpes infection in newborns and could lead to blindness and other serious infections in those with an impaired immune system. The risk of an HIV infection is also increased by an HSV infection and may contribute to Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia.

Many people question why science has been unable to develop a herpes vaccine for so long when we have several for Covid-19 after just a few months. A recent study conducted by Dr. Houssein H. Ayoub, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics at Qatar University, and Dr. Laith Jamal Abu Raddad, Professor of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University highlight the scale of HSV-2 burden in the U.S. and demonstrates the need for continuous surveillance and to develop prophylactic and therapeutic HSV-2 vaccines.

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How Herpes Is Diagnosed

Your first step is to make an appointment with your healthcare provider if you have a lesion on your genitals or believe you were exposed to herpes. “Google really can’t tell you if you have genital herpes or not,” said Dr. Shim. A diagnosis of herpes can be made with an exam, but your healthcare provider will also order a culture swab from the sore to confirm the virus.

Your healthcare provider can give you advice on easing symptoms, shortening their duration, and preventing outbreaks in the future. Taking a daily dose of the antiviral drug Valtrex can decrease transmission to a non-infected partner, said Dr. Shirazian. It can also prevent recurrent outbreaks for the person with the infection. Maintaining general healthful habitseating nutritious foods, staying active, and getting enough sleepgo a long way to keeping your immune system able to minimize outbreaks.

Who Is At Risk For Neonatal Herpes

Many pregnant parents-to-be who have HSV have developed an immune response to the virus over time. These antibodies are passed on to their unborn child during pregnancy, potentially giving them a certain layer of protection against neonatal herpes.

However, contracting HSV close to the delivery date can be harmful to an unborn baby, as no immune response has had time to develop or pass on. These babies are at a heightened risk of contracting neonatal herpes and becoming severely ill as a result, regardless of what strand of the disease they have had contact with.

Probably the most important factor here is whether the mother has antibodies or an immune response to of the herpes virus, explains Dr. Kahn. If the infant is acquiring it from the mother, she most likely has antibodies that she passed on to the infant during pregnancy that may protect the infant. The exception would be if the herpes virus infection in the mother is acquired very close to the time of delivery, such that the mothers body or immune system doesnt have time to develop an antibiotic response.

All newborns have an undeveloped immune system, leaving them at risk of contracting viruses. However, those suffering from immunodeficiency, such as premature infants, are at a greater risk of suffering adverse effects of neonatal herpes.

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Ask Your Partner If They Have Ever Had A Sexually Transmitted Disease

Most people who have genital herpes don’t know they’re infected, so ask whether they have had any other sexually transmitted disease. People with a history of STDs are more likely to have genital herpes.

It may be awkward, but it’s important to be honest with each other. Your partner may be afraid to tell you the truth if they fear a negative reaction. If your partner feels comfortable talking with you, you’ll be more likely to get straight answers.

How Is Genital Herpes Diagnosed

Often, your doctor can diagnose genital herpes by looking at visible sores. Your doctor or nurse may also use a cotton swab to take a fluid sample from a sore to test in a lab.

Genital herpes can be hard to diagnose, especially between outbreaks. Blood tests that look for antibodies to the herpes virus can help diagnose herpes in women without symptoms or between outbreaks.

A Pap test is not used to detect genital herpes.

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Experts Say Male Circumcision Can Help

According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine , heterosexual men who undergo medical circumcision can significantly reduce their risk of herpes simplex virus type 2 infection.

In the study, male volunteers who received immediate circumcision were about three percent less likely to become infected with HSV-2 compared to those in the control group.

How Can I Reduce My Risk Of Herpes Simplex

Preventing HSV-1

You can reduce your risk of contracting HSV-1 by avoiding physical contact with someone who has a cold sore. People can still spread HSV-1 when cold sores arent present, but its less likely.

If someone has an active HSV-1 infection, avoid:

• Sharing utensils, cups, lip balms or other personal care products.
• Touching the skin near their mouth.

Preventing HSV-2

If youre sexually active, you can take these steps to protect yourself and others from the herpes virus and other STIs:

• Be monogamous with one sexual partner or limit your number of partners.
• Get tested for STIs and complete any prescribed treatment.
• Tell your sexual partners if you have genital herpes so they can get tested.
• Use condoms during intercourse and dental dams during oral sex.

Wash your hands often if you have an outbreak or are around someone with symptoms.

If your sexual partner has genital herpes, these actions can lower your risk of getting the virus:

• Dont have sex when your partner has active symptoms. Condoms may not cover all sores, so you may still get the virus.
• Make sure your partner takes antiviral medication as prescribed.
• Wait to have sex until scabs fall off active lesions.

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Support And Advice For Genital Herpes

If you have just found out you have genital herpes, you may feel shocked and may have a lot of questions. It may help you to gather as much information as you can about herpes. This can help you to make fully informed decisions about your treatment, safe sex and preventing further recurrences. Talking to a counsellor about your concerns may also help.

How Can I Make Sure I Dont Give Anyone Herpes

If you find out that you have herpes, try not to freak out. There are a few ways that you can stop it from spreading to your partners and other parts of your body.

• Talk with your doctor about taking herpes medication every day, which can lower your chances of spreading herpes.

• Dont have sex during a herpes outbreak, even with a condom. There may be sores on places the condom doesnt cover.

• Learn how to tell when an outbreak is coming, and stop having sex right when you notice these signs. You may feel a burning, itching, or tingling feeling that lets you know youre about to get sores.

• Dont have sex until your sores are totally gone, and the scabs heal and fall off.

• Dont touch your herpes sores, because you can spread the infection to other parts of your body or other people. If you touch a sore, wash your hands with soap and water right after.

• Dont wet contact lenses with spit this might spread your oral herpes to your eye.

• If you have a cold sore on your mouth, don’t kiss anyone especially babies, children, or pregnant women.

• Always tell your sexual partners that you have herpes before you have sex, so you can work together to prevent it from spreading. Telling someone you have an STD can be hard, but herpes is super common and doesnt lead to serious health problems. So try not to be too embarrassed or stressed out about it.

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