How big of a health problem is genital herpes? what treatments are there? what can happen if you let herpes go untreated? in your opinion, how big of a health problem is genital herpes nowadays? if as many as 90% of americans have type 1, and many don't h

Genital : Genital herpes is caused by herpes simplex virus. It is a sexually transmitted disease. It is usually casued by herpes simplex virus type 2. It is transmitted through contact with oral or genital secretions. Fever blisters or cold sores are caused by herpes simplex virus type 1. However this can cause genital herpes when oral surface comes in contact with genitals during oral sex. First episode of genital herpes causes group of painful blisters filled with clear fluid and after few days dry up and heal. The first episode is more noticeable and painful than the recurrent outbreaks. First episode is associated with fatigue, fever, pain in thighs, back pain etc. They can occur on labia, inner thighs, vagina, anus in women. On penis and scrotum and inner thighs in men. Once infected with this virus, your body always carries this virus. After the first outbreak, one might have frequent outbreaks when their body is under physical stress like even menstruation and mental stress. Some, might never have an outbreak again in their life. After one is infected it can be transmitted to their partners even if they do not have any skin blisters. Transmission can be avoided if there is no contact. Using condoms cannot completely eliminate the risk of transmission. Hence, it is advisable to reveal to partners if one have genital herpes infection. There is no complete cure for genital herpes. Once infected, the virus is in the body forever. However there are antiviral treatments available to decrease the severity of symptoms, to reduce the number of days of symptoms, and to reduce the amount of virus shedding from the body. Sometimes these treatments are used daily instead of only with outbreaks to decrease the virus shedding, so decreasing the chance of virus transmission to partners. These treatments are acyclovir, valcyclovir and famcyclovir. When they are used with recurrent outbreaks these are effective when started as soon as mild discomfort begins, even before the blisters appear. It is very important to know the history of genital herpes in pregnant women. This can be passed to baby during the birth from birth canal and leads to brain damage and brain infection, skin infection and death of the new born baby. Women who get infected during pregnancy with genital herpes are more likely to pass this to new born compared to women who has a recurrent episode. So, a cesearean section should be planned if there is any outbreak around term(close to expected date of delivery). Also other complications like spread of infection to eyes, lungs, spinal cord can occur. But this is mostly in people with compromised immnune system like HIV and someone taking immunosuppressive drugs. I hope this answers most of your questions, but the following link has information presented very well that can be helpful for you to read to get even better understanding regarding genital herpes.