Table of contents:
- What is herpes?
- What are the options for herpes medications?
- Should you take herpes medicine for life?
Herpes is a disease that affects the skin, genitals and mouth. Itching, fever, watery resilience, and itching that can spread to other parts of the body are fairly common symptoms of herpes. This condition is certainly very disturbing to you. Then what are the effective herpes drugs against the virus?
What is herpes?
Herpes is a viral infection that causes painful blisters and sores. Actually, there are 8 to 9 types of viruses that cause herpes. However, the most common viruses are of two, viz Varicella zoster and Herpes simplex . Virus Varicella zoster is the cause of chicken pox and shingles, more commonly known as shingles or shingles.
Meanwhile, viruses Herpes simplex types 1 and 2 (HSV1 and HSV2) cause blisters, fever, and rashes around the mouth (oral herpes) and genitals (genital herpes). If you have genital herpes, this is considered a venereal disease. Once you are infected, you will have this herpes virus forever, aka this virus cannot be eliminated from the body.
What are the options for herpes medications?
If you start experiencing the symptoms of herpes as described above, it's a good idea to see a doctor immediately. The sooner it is diagnosed, the less it will spread throughout the body. Here are three choices of drugs used to treat herpes.
1. Acyclovir: In the treatment of herpes, usually an antiviral drug that has been used since 1982 will be used. This herpes drug is in the form of topical (external medicine) and oral (taken). This herpes medicine is classified as safe and can be consumed daily as needed.
2. Valacyclovir: This herpes drug is a newer drug breakthrough. Valacyclovir actually uses acyclovir as its active ingredient. However, this drug makes acyclovir more efficient so that the body can absorb most of the drug content. One of the advantages over acyclovir is that it can be taken during the day without the need for rest.
3. Famciclovir: Famciclovir uses penciclovir as an active ingredient to stop the HSV virus. Like valasyclovir, this drug also lasts longer if it's already in the body. So that also, this drug must be consumed within a certain time and should not be frequent.
Should you take herpes medicine for life?
As explained above, once you have herpes, the virus will not disappear in an instant from your body. Antiviral drugs for herpes can only help weaken the virus. So, it is very likely that this disease will recur in some time after treatment.
This is why your doctor will likely recommend that you keep taking herpes medication after the first attack. There are two types of herpes treatments that are usually recommended, depending on the condition of each patient.
The first is episodic therapy. Episodic therapy with antiviral herpes drugs is given to people whose herpes recurs less than six times a year. This treatment will be given whenever symptoms recur, perhaps for 5 days.
The second type of treatment is suppressive therapy. This therapy is recommended for people whose herpes recurs more than six times a year. Even in severe cases, the doctor will ask the patient to take the medicine every day, for life. In addition to reducing the risk of recurrence of symptoms, taking herpes medication for life is important to prevent transmission of herpes to partners or people around the patient.
