What Does Genital Herpes Look Like ?
The HSV virus causes lesions or sores that appear around and even inside the vaginal area and cervix for women, and on the scrotum and penis for men. Both females and males could also get lesions and sores in the urinary tract, on the thighs and buttocks and around the anal opening. In some rare cases, sores and lesions have been discovered on other body parts as well.
The symptoms of genital herpes can vary in intensity and appearance. Most people don’t have any symptoms or experience very mild symptoms and they don’t even suspect that they have been infected. However, for the others, the initial stages of genital herpes can cause one or more lesions and skin eruptions that are very painful.
For many people, this first episode or primary infection can be very severe and can have more distinct symptoms that in any of the following recurrent episodes. During the first episode, the lesions will generally be accompanied by certain flu-like symptoms like headache, fever and body ache. Some people even experience difficult and painful urination and swollen glands in the groin. Women might experience abnormal vaginal discharge.
The lesions of genital herpes usually appears anywhere from two to ten days after the person is infected by the virus, and can last anywhere from two to four weeks. The first few symptoms of genital herpes are the peculiar small red bumps that later on develop into blisters. These blisters will then become painful open sores that will eventually dry up, crust over and will then heal without leaving any scars. In some cases, a second round of lesions appear.
Of growing concern is the increasing evidence that people suffering from genital herpes are now at a much greater risk of contracting HIV if they do have any form of unprotected sex with someone infected with the HIV virus. And likewise, HIV-infected people who also suffer from genital herpes may have severe outbreaks that are more frequent and their outbreak episodes may become increasingly difficult to treat.
Why doesn't the virus eventually go away ?
In a healthy individual, the immune system attacks herpes and resolves symptoms, but it can't completely rid the body of herpes. This is because the virus "hides" in a dormant state in some of our nerve root cells. Herpes evades the immune system by traveling the nerve pathways and hiding in nerve roots. When it does so, it enters an inactive or "latent" phase during which it appears to cause no symptoms and no harm.
The virus is dormant for life in these nerve roots, but intermittently it reactivates from dormancy. Certain triggers may cause this reactivation process. The virus to reproduces greater numbers of itself and travels the nerve pathways again, reaching the skin or certain mucous membranes in large enough quantities to be contagious. Sometimes there are visible signs of infection during these active periods, but sometimes there are none.
This cycle of latency and reactivation may be repeated hundreds of times but may follow dramatically different patterns from one individual to the next.
By Natasha Bantwal
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