Resolved question:
Hi doctor, I recently came to know that my girlfriend has got herpes. I am not sure whether I also got the infection from her. She has got symptoms of the virus infection and I haven’t got it yet. I heard that there are certain factors that cause symptoms appear earlier than in others. I don’t know whether my doubt is right. Can heated blankets and heated car seats increase chances of infection and make symptoms come faster? Please help if I am too dumb.
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4 Days
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Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease caused by a virus named Herpes Simplex Virus. It is a lifelong infection and will stay in human body for a lifetime, once it is infected. Of the herpes simplex, the type of virus which cause genital herpes is the type 2 variant. During an outbreak of the infection, the patient will experience painful blisters, itching in the blisters, cold sores, fever, head ache, muscle pains and some more wide range of symptoms. Normally outbreaks are triggered by factors like stress, heat, cold, exposure to sunlight, other infections, frequent sexual contact with infected people, menstruation and so on. So, the primary answer to your question is –YES. Temperature changes can influence triggering of an outbreak of herpes virus. That makes a person who is already infected and not got an outbreak yet, to have an outbreak sooner. But this is not assured as it can change from person to person. Also practicing safe sex is very important to delay outbreaks. Having frequent unprotected sex with partners having infection will make your body come in contact with infection, more often, causing an outbreak faster. Suppressive therapies using antiviral medicines may also fail if you continue having sex with infected people. Medicines like Valtrex, Acyclovir are used to suppress the severity of viral infection. Hope my answer was useful. Take care.