Coping With Herpes
Herpes can cause as much emotional as it does physical pain. By learning what you are up against, treating it appropriately, and maintaining a positive attitude, you could live with this common infection.
Please note that herpes is caused by a virus, there is no cure, but there are some suggestions about treatment you could take to reduce the number of outbreaks:
1. Identify Triggers that could Cause Outbreaks. Stress, illness, menstruation, an unhealthy diet, too much sun exposure and even sex could leave you more vulnerable.
2. Anti-viral Medications. These might be prescribed if you experience frequent outbreaks, meaning more than five or six a year. These drugs are taken daily, and would help shorten the duration of an outbreak and even lessen the number of outbreaks. They could also decrease the risk of spreading the disease by 50 percent. Taking Prescription drugs orally, such as valacyclovir, acyclovir or famciclovir, which are effectively treat herpes infections. However, this type of treatment is not curative and could get expensive, especially if it is used daily to suppress outbreaks.
3. Pregnant women might take these drugs around the 36th week of their pregnancy to avoid an outbreak around the time of delivery. If there is an outbreak at delivery time, some doctors might opt to perform a caesarian section to keep the baby from coming into contact with blisters or sores.
4. Anti-viral medications would be given to newborns that are infected during birth. Sometimes antiviral ointments could be used to shorten an outbreak.
5. Talk to your doctor to find out a right treatment plan for you.