Vaginal herpes is a viral disease of the genital organs, mainly affecting the vagina. The disease causes the herpes simplex virus, in particular its first type (20% of cases) and the type of the second (80%).
Causes of vaginal herpes
Infection with the herpes virus occurs during sexual intercourse (genital, oral or anal), other ways of infection are practically not possible. The risk of getting a herpes virus from an infected sexual partner is present in every fifth woman, using a condom reduces this risk twice. Low immunity, promiscuous sex life, unprotected sexual intercourse are factors that increase the likelihood of vaginal herpes.
It is important to note that doctors rarely diagnose herpes in the vagina, most often herpetic eruptions are limited to the surface of the skin of the perineum, the anus and the external genitalia and only rarely spread to the vagina and cervix.
What does vaginal herpes look like?
Vaginal herpes is manifested by eruptions in the vagina:
- Rashes have the appearance of small bubbles, inside of which is a cloudy liquid;
- the place of the appearance of the blisters is reddening and itching, and also his soreness and burning;
- within a week after the appearance, the vesicles burst, leaving behind them red sores;
- ulcers heal, flake, within two weeks they are replaced by healthy skin.
Indirect signs of vaginal herpes in women occur even before the appearance of rashes and manifest general malaise, muscle pain, increased body temperature.
How to treat vaginal herpes?
On the common question "how to completely cure vaginal herpes," all doctors respond approximately the same way: today there are no drugs that can completely eliminate the herpes virus from the human body. Treatment of vaginal herpes is symptomatic. This means that the therapeutic regimens are aimed at eliminating the symptoms of vaginal herpes, alleviating the course of the disease and reducing the frequency of relapses.
As the main treatment, specific antiviral (antiherpetic) drugs are used:
- Acyclovir and its analogs - Zovirax, Herpes, Medovir, Cyclovax and others;
- Valaciclovir and its analogue Valtrex;
- Famciclovir and its analogue Famvir;
- Penziklovir and his, yet not registered in our country, analogue of Denavir.
Auxiliary treatment of vaginal herpes is not always justified, but sometimes it is used, it is in particular: drugs that simulate immunity, increase the resistance of the body and stimulate the production of interferon. The duration of treatment for vaginal herpes is individual.
Vaginal herpes in pregnancy
Vaginal herpes in pregnancy , of course, represents a risk of infection for the fetus, which often occurs during childbirth, when the child passes through the affected birth canal. The degree of risk is determined by several conditions:
- If a woman has contracted the herpes virus before pregnancy (that is, if there was at least one outbreak of vaginal herpes before pregnancy), then the probability of infection of the child is negligible, since the already available immunity to herpesvirus for nine months is transmitted to the fetus.
- If the herpes in the vagina first appeared in the first or second trimester, after which it was successfully treated, then the risk of infection of the baby is relatively small, but still it exists.
- A significant risk of infection of the fetus can be said if the symptoms of vaginal herpes in a woman first appeared in the III trimester. Under such circumstances, immunity simply does not have time to develop and be transmitted to the fetus, neonatal herpes develops in every fourth baby. To avoid infection of the fetus, doctors are often forced to resort to caesarean section.
Treatment of vaginal herpes during pregnancy is most often performed with Acyclovir or its analogues. An untreated vaginal herpes in the mother is dangerous for the child with various abnormalities in the brain activity and the activities of other organs.