Oral Herpes Awareness and Prevention- Part 1
Herpes.
When asked what exactly herpes is, and what symptoms might show up, most do not know the answer. However, when coming across this word, most immediately think of sexual intercourse and associate the patient with an action of a similar degree. This stigma and misunderstanding of herpes prevent patients from visiting health professionals and correctly identifying the virus, causing unintentional spreading of the virus to their loved ones.
So, what exactly is herpes?
There are two different types of herpes. One, as many know, is genital herpes, which spreads by sexual contact, and causes itching, small sores, ulcers, and scabs around the genitals of both men and women. As of 2016, around 491 million(13%) of the world population(ages 15-49) were living with this infection. The other type, oral herpes, is ironically much more common than genital herpes but is less known. Oral herpes is caused by any contact with saliva. In places where culturally, food is shared within families or bird kisses are a daily occurrence, oral herpes spreads very rapidly. Oral herpes can cause symptoms such as painful, fluid-filled blisters around the lips or under the nose or swelling and itching in the infected area.
Unfortunately, though medication can heal these symptoms and make the virus go dormant, there is no cure for the virus once infected and settled in the human body. This is exactly why early identification is important – by fearing the associated stigma and restraining visits to health professionals, patients will easily spread this virus to their loved ones, and all infected patients will have the virus in their bodies for life. Any time these patients are tired, cold, or have generally low immunity, this oral herpes will happily pop back up again to cause more suffering.
References:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/herpes-hsv1-and-hsv2/oral-herpes