Facts About Genital Herpes

• A study found that up to 70% of people who had genital herpes got it from their partner when their partner had no signs or symptoms of an outbreak.
• Approximately 75% of people with genital herpes do not know they have the virus.
• The amino acids lysine and arginine have been shown to play a role in herpes flare-ups. According to some new research, lysine can help control herpes flare-ups. Arginine, on the other hand, can actually make flare-ups worse. In turn, foods that are rich in lysine, but low in arginine, can help control both oral and genital herpes. Fish, chicken, beef, lamb, milk, cheese, beans, brewer’s yeast, mung bean sprouts and most fruits and vegetables have more lysine than arginine, except for peas. Gelatin, chocolate, carob, coconut, oats, whole wheat and white flour, peanuts, soybeans, and wheat germ have more arginine than lysine.
• Genital herpes is for life. Once the virus infects you, it moves from the skin or membranes around the genitals to the central nervous system, where it remains for life. The virus can "wake up" or reactivate to cause a recurrence of the disease. When reactivation occurs, the virus travels down the nerves to the skin. It may cause blisters, genital itching, tenderness, burning, tingling, or redness, but it usually just makes copies of itself with no symptoms.
• The biggest misconception is that genital herpes is a disease associated with promiscuous behavior. Symptoms of genital herpes can first appear a long time after the person has contracted the disease - you may have contracted it from a sexual partner long ago. Your partner may have genital herpes without knowing it, he or she may have passed it on to you without showing signs of the disease.
• Although HSV-1 causes the majority of oral herpes cases (cold sores) and HSV-2 causes the majority of genital herpes cases, both of these viruses can cause oral herpes, genital herpes, or both.
• In the United States, about one third of genital herpes cases are caused by type 1 genital herpes.
• If you touch a genital herpes sore and then touch another part of your body, you can potentially spread the virus. Avoid contact with sores, and if you touch a sore, wash your hands with soap immediately.
• Genital herpes is more common in women (approximately 1 out of 4 women) than in men (almost 1 out of 5). This may be because male to female transmission is more likely than female to male transmission.
• There is no medical cure for HSV infections. There are, however, several antiviral medications that help to reduce the number of recurring outbreaks and to shorten the duration of each outbreak.
• There is no vaccine that prevents herpes infection, although researchers are working on a vaccine, and some experimental vaccines seem to provide some protection to some people. There may be an effective vaccine in the future.
• In most cases, recurrent outbreaks become less frequent with time and may eventually stop altogether. Recurrent attacks are caused by reactivation of virus already present in the body - not by being re-infected.
• Stress, menstruation, depression, sexual intercourse, and immune-suppression are some factors that may trigger recurrent infection.
• The time from exposure to the viruses and when you first get symptoms is unpredictable. After a person first contracts HSV-1 or HSV-2, their first outbreak of symptoms may show up anywhere from days to many years later - or not at all.
• Genital herpes does not affect fertility. However, it is possible a newborn baby can be infected with the herpes virus if your infection is active at the time of birth.