GENITAL HERPES – ELIMINATING THE VIRUS
Once infected, there is no way of eliminating the virus from the body. It usually lies dormant for weeks, months or even years and then flares again. Like cold sores on the lip, the infection may be triggered by a rise in body temperature from a cold or other infection.
Heat, friction or emotional upsets may be the trigger for recurrence in others. It is highly infectious. Women who become pregnant may have the infection cross the placenta to infect the foetus. Infections acquired late in the pregnancy may infect the child during its passage through the birth canal and so caesarean section may be indicated in some cases to prevent the child becoming infected.
Diagnosis is usually obvious from the clinical picture but scrapings from the ulcers may be examined under the microscope or virus cultures be obtained to make sure of the diagnosis.
A variety of local applications to the lesions have been used including painting them with a dye and then exposing the area to ultra-violet light. This has now been abandoned as it is thought to increase the risk of cancer in the area.
Chronic infection of the cervix or neck of the womb with the herpes virus is thought to be one of the causes of cancer of the cervix which is the second most common cancer in women.
But herpes may not be forever as many people eventually mount some sort of immune response and the recurrent flare-ups cease.
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