WHAT IS GENITAL HERPES?
Herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 2, because it primarily affects the genital area, is referred to as genital herpes and should be differentiated from the very common HSV type 1, associated with fever blisters on the mouth or face (oral herpes). However, both types of HSV can cause genital herpes. HSV-1 usually causes lip sores (fever blisters, cold sores), but it can cause genital infections, too.
HSV-2 causes genital sores most of the time, but it also can infect the mouth. It is important to note, in the context of genital herpes, that the immune system cannot completely rid the body of herpes. Always, a small
colony of the virus lives on, evading the immune system by traveling nerve pathways and hiding
in nerve roots.
A latent phase, during which it hides and causes no problems or symptoms, may last weeks or years, but it can be reactivated at any time. Certain triggers cause the virus to reproduce and set out on the nerve pathways once again, reaching the skin in large enough quantities to be contracted by a sex partner.
When it is active, however, herpes does not always manifest itself in visible signs, and therein lies one of the
largest problems. Genital herpes is extremely common in the United States, affecting about 50 million people 12 and older—or one in five of the total adolescent and adult population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More women (one in four) contract HSV-2; in men, the frequency is one in five, probably attributable to the fact that it is easier for a male to transmit the disease to a female than vice versa. More blacks than whites have herpes. The group in which herpes is proliferating most quickly is young white teens; in those who are age 12 to 19, HSV-2 was five times more prevalent at the start of the new millennium than it was two decades earlier.
About 89 percent of those with genital herpes are unaware of their disease because they have no symptoms—ever—or do not recognize the symptoms. One of the most startling facts about genital herpes is that most people who are HSV-2-infected have never actually received a diagnosis.
Lacking any awareness that they have genital herpes, these individuals often spread it unknowingly. This obviously poses an enormous health risk for those who are sexually active and underscores the importance of STD testing before initiation of a sexual relationship with a partner.
This disease has major health consequences because the virus stays in the body in certain nerve cells, periodically causing lifelong symptoms in some but not all individuals. Stress, illness, poor nutrition, excessive activity, and sunlight have all been known to trigger bouts of herpes in herpes sufferers, even when the disease has lain dormant for a long time.
These triggers set the virus in motion, causing it to travel along nerve pathways to the site of outbreak.
CAUSES OF GENITAL HERPES
Caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV), genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease. Medical experts report that approximately four of five people do not know they have it; therefore, it is important
to be well informed about the ways in which this disease is transmitted. Of this recurrent, incurable disease’s two serotypes—HSV-1 and HSV-2— the latter causes most cases of genital herpes.
GENITAL HERPES SYMPTOMS
The primary episode of genital herpes varies greatly, and as a result, many of those infected are unaware of the infection. Those who do have pronounced symptoms usually have lesions within two weeks of transmission. Flulike symptoms, including fever and swollen glands, are not unusual.
First episodes last two to three weeks. Other early symptoms are sensations of itching or burning; pain in the legs, genital area, or buttocks; vaginal discharge; and abdominal region pressure. The site of the infection hosts the first sores (lesions), but these also can occur inside the vagina and on the cervix in women or in the urinary passage of either sex.
Small red bumps morph into blisters, finally turning into painful open sores. They crust over a period of a few days and then heal. Some people with genital herpes experience headache, fever, muscle aches, painful urination, vaginal discharge, and swollen glands in the groin.
The primary episode of genital herpes is usually the worst and is often followed by four to five
more symptomatic periods the first year. However, many who have HSV-2 experience no symptoms,
and in some people, the symptoms are mild, but this disease can also cause painful genital ulcers
that recur frequently.
What sometimes makes herpes hard to detect is that it manifests itself in different forms. Some are easily missed; others are overt and dramatic. Obvious signs are painful blisterlike sores, which eventually crust over in a scab before they heal.
Herpes causes ulcers, sores, and crusted lesions in various places: anus, buttocks, upper thigh,
vagina, labia, scrotum, and penis. It also can infect the urethra and cause burning. Subtle signs of genital herpes are skin redness, tiny pimplelike sores, small skin slits, and irritation around the anus that is sometimes confused with hemorrhoids.
Herpes symptoms in some women resemble yeast infection. Small sores in the urethra can cause painful urination. Aching or itching during the menstrual period is another symptom. Some women mistakenly think they are having a skin irritation caused by sexual activity when it is actually caused by herpes. Men who contract herpes may initially believe that they have acne, irritation caused by sexual activity, or jock itch.
See Also
Cure for Genital Herpes
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