What to do if you have recurrent genital herpes

Genital herpes itself is prone to recurrence. Once recurrent genital herpes occurs, the difficulty of treatment will increase, and it is easy to cause some drug resistance problems. In addition, its recurrence rate is relatively high, and the harm of the disease will be greater. Through investigation, it is found that some patients can relapse more than ten times a year. For recurrence, treatment must be more strict, and the doctor's advice must be strictly followed in terms of conditioning.

Recurrent genital herpes symptoms

Recurrent genital herpes often occurs within 1 to 3 months after primary genital herpes. The recurrence rate and frequency of attacks caused by HSV-2 infection are also higher.

About 60% of patients relapse within one year after the first infection, with 4 to 6 attacks in the first year, and some relapse more than 10 times.

The symptoms of recurrent genital herpes are milder than those of primary genital herpes. Recurrent genital herpes may be accompanied by sacral radiculopathy: symptoms include pain or paresthesia in the buttocks or thighs, urinary retention, and erectile dysfunction.

Other complications include proctitis, prostatitis, urethritis syndrome, etc. The risk of cervical cancer in women is 5 to 10 times greater than that of the general population.

Traditional treatments for recurrent genital herpes

(1) General treatment

①The main thing is to keep the local area clean, dry and the blister wall intact. It can be washed with isotonic saline every day. Those who suffer from pain can take oral painkillers and provide mental comfort.

②For those with concurrent bacterial infection, antibiotic ointment can be applied externally.

③For those with obvious local pain, 5% lidocaine hydrochloride ointment or oral analgesics can be used.

④ Spiritual comfort, explain the causes of relapse and how to treat and deal with it.

⑤ Women with recurrent disease should undergo a gynecological examination to rule out cervical cancer.

(2) Antiviral drug treatment

① Acyclovir (Acyclovir tablets) is considered to be the most effective anti-HSV drug currently. For severe cases, the drug can be administered intravenously at a dose of 5 mg per kilogram of body weight, once every 8 hours for 5 to 7 days. Generally, patients can take it orally, 200 mg each time, 4 to 5 times a day, for 7 to 10 days. In severe cases, intravenous drip can be used and acyclovir ointment can be applied to the affected area.

② Triazole riboside is a guanosine nucleoside analog that has anti-DNA and RNA virus effects. Taking 800 mg per day for 10 days can relieve pain and shorten the course of the disease.

③ The immunostimulant oral levamisole has a certain therapeutic effect, but some reports are not very certain about the effect. Interferon has been found to have an inhibitory effect on HSV in vitro, and its clinical therapeutic effect is still under study.