LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Genital Herpes: Infections
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Genital herpes ... increases the risk of HIV infection. This is because HIV can enter the body more easily whenever there's a break in the skin (such as a sore) during unprotected sexual contact. In addition, if a pregnant woman with genital herpes has an active infection during childbirth, the newborn baby is at risk for getting herpes infection. Herpes infection in a newborn can cause meningitis (an inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord), seizures, and brain damage.
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Genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease (STD), is an infection caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV). HSV is in the same family of viruses that causes chickenpox, shingles and mononucleosis. There are two types of HSV: HSV-1, which infects 80 percent of the U.S. population, usually appears on the lips in cold sores; HSV-2 is usually found in the genital area. However, if a person with HSV-1 oral herpes (cold sores) performs oral sex, it is possible for the partner to get HSV-1 genital herpes. And HSV-2 can infect the mouth through oral sex.
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Genital herpes cannot be cured. However, antiviral treatment can relieve the symptoms. Medication can quickly relieve the pain and discomfort during an outbreak, and can shorten healing time. Medications have been shown to speed the healing and relieve symptoms in first attacks more than in recurrent episodes of genital HSV-1 and HSV-2 infections.
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Genital herpes is a disease resulting from an infection by a herpes simplex virus. There are eight different kinds of human herpes viruses. Only two of these, herpes simplex types 1 and 2, can cause genital herpes. It has been commonly believed that herpes simplex virus type 1 infects above the waist (causing cold sores) and herpes simplex virus type 2 infects below the waist (causing genital sores). This is not completely true. Both herpes virus type 1 and type 2 can cause herpes lesions on the lips or genitals, but recurrent cold sores are almost always type 1.
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Genital herpes is caused by either of two types of the herpes simplex virus (HSV). There is no known cure for herpes. Both conventional and alternative treatments only help in reducing the symptoms and frequency of outbreaks. Treatments effective for cold sores—which are ... caused by the herpes virus—may or may not also be effective for genital herpes, because of possible differences in the type of herpes virus causing infections in different body locations.
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After invading the skin or mucous membranes, the virus that causes genital herpes travels to the sensory nerves at the end of the spinal cord. Even after the skin lesions have disappeared, the virus remains inside the nerve cells in a latent state. In most people, the virus reactivates from time to time. When this happens, the virus travels along the nerves to the skin, where it multiplies on the surface at or near the site of the original herpes sores, causing new lesions to erupt. It ... can reactivate without any visible sores. At these times, small amounts of the virus may be shed at, or near, sites of the original infection, in genital or oral secretions, or from inapparent lesions.
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