Symptoms Of Herpes

Type 1 of the herpes simplex virus (HSV) has infected between eighty and ninety percent of the human race, and this vast population tend to experience herpes-related mouth sores at least once before 10 years old. While a minority of HSV-infected people can experience high fevers and severe gum infections, most will remain asymptomatic aside from the occasional cold sore.

Herpes Simplex Type II, or genital herpes, is a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and most infected people are asymptomatic.  Occasionally it shows up as blisters in the genital areas -- the sex organs and the rectum.   When people have a first outbreak of genital herpes, which is usually the most painful, these blisters split open into sores, or ulcers, that heal after about a month.  When second outbreaks occur, sometimes a few months later, they tend to be milder and shorter.  Since the virus stays in the body, no existing treatment can prevent further outbreaks with 100% certainty, but they do tend to occur less and less frequently as the body builds up its antibodies against the virus.      Existing treatments can stave off severe outbreaks and help genital and mouth sores heal quickly, but they cannot get rid of the virus; it stays in the body. 

Genital herpes has infected at least 50 million Americans, and possibly as much as 20-25% of the entire US population.  Although the infection rates of other STDs are decreasing, genital herpes continues to spread at warp speed.   Experts believe that of all STDs, only the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) has infected more people than HSV Type II, and only HPV is spreading faster.

Even though it is spreading far and wide, genital herpes is not actually the most contagious of diseases.  Since it dies after 10 seconds outside the human body, it probably cannot be spread via toilet seats, chairs or other shared surfaces, although some limited evidence suggest that it can be transmitted inside the warm, moist environment of a spa.   Nonetheless, the virus can spread easily through broken skin. For example, it can migrate from one person's cold sores, through a cut in another person's finger, and into the second person's blood.  It can also be transmitted during sexual intercourse between, say, a man with an open blister and a woman with a tiny raw spot in the lining of her vagina.   The use of latex condoms reduces the risk of infection, but does not eliminate it completely. 

In some cases, HSV-II causes symptoms that don't appear to have anything to do with sex.   In April 1999, the New England Journal of Medicine reported a herpes infection in a woman's esophagus.  Some infected people have gotten pneumonia because of the HSV-II virus in their lungs.  Measles-like rashes and swellings all over the body can also be a result of HSV infection.   Worst of all, mothers in the midst of a herpes outbreak may infect their infants during a vaginal delivery.  This is a medical emergency for newborn babies, because HSV can infect their unformed brains.  For this reason, mothers with active herpes usually deliver their babies by C-section.   

While the virus travels fairly easily from one person to another, it does not always cause severe symptoms.   Sometimes, an infected person might only have a small patch of red skin rather than a blister; in this case, he is contagious, but not as much as some one with an open sore.  Other less painful (and usually less contagious) indicators of herpes include a tiny cluster of red skin bumps called "erythematous papules,” or heightened sensitivity in nerve endings, AKA "podromes,” which make an infected person feel itches, burns, or pressures, a frequent need to urinate, or tingles and aches in the legs.  These podromes tend to occur in areas that have had blisters in the past or may develop them in the future.   Among some women with herpes, a vaginal lesion can produce the same symptoms as an ordinary yeast infection, and thus requires the help of a doctor to determine the actual condition and prescribe appropriate medication. 

A final irony of HSV II is that in 3% of people who are infected but have no symptoms, the disease can be transmitted to others through a phenomenon called "viral shedding,” in which the virus leaves their body and enters some one else's without any awareness on their part that they are even infected.  

A nationwide survey revealed that about 16% of the US population between 14 and 49 has been infected with genital herpes.   The number of infections has remained steady over the last decade, although the rate is going up in other countries.   However, not every American with herpes is aware (s) he carries the disease, because so many infected people either have no symptoms, or don't recognize the symptoms they do have.

*This article is based on the article at http://www.cdc.gov/std/herpes/STDFact-herpes.htm, http://health.yahoo.com/sexualhealth-overview/genital-herpes-topic-overview/healthwise--te3043.html, http://www.herpes.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex, http://www.webmd.com/genital-herpes/default.htm