photo taken from www.drugsdepot.com
There is still no known cure for herpes but there are temporary medications for the outbreaks. Among them are oral medications, such as aciclovir (Zovirax), famciclovir (Famvir), or valacyclovir (Valtrex) as well as ointments that can be used to help alleviate the pain associated with the outbreak even shorten the extent of the eruption.
Docosanol (Abreva) can also be used as treatment and may be effective. It works by stopping the virus from fusing to cell membranes; hence it bars entry for the virus into the cell and may keep an eruption limited to a smaller area than would be observable.
Other antiviral drug such as Tromantadine can be very effective against herpes as well as non-prescription analgesics so as to reduce pain and fever during initial outbreaks. Recent studies recommends the use of other natural compounds such as Carrageenans, linear sulphated polysaccharides that can be extracted from red seaweeds, Resveratrol, a compound in red wine and Lactoferrin, a component of whey protein . They are found to have antiviral effects in HSV-infected cells, prevent HSV reproduction in vitro by restraining a protein needed by the virus to reproduce and have a synergistic effect with aciclovir against HSV in vitro.
The immune system is however is able to demolish active herpes virus particles but the virus can conveniently hide from the immune system in an inactive (or latent) state. Current research recommends that this ability to hide is achieved via modification to cellular enzyme histone deacetylases (HDACs), namely HDAC1 and HDAC2.
Tags: Prevention, Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Preventive Measures, Treatment, Treatment And Prevention
