FAQ

Herpes is a highly contagious virus that can be spread many ways the most common ways including kissing, sexual contact such as vaginal, anal or oral sex. Herpes can also be spread through nonsexual contact. It can appear on different areas of the body causing sores, blisters and other irritations to the skin. Some people have mild or no symtoms at all and may spread the disease without realizing they are carrying the virus.
 

There are many things that can trigger herpes outbreaks, such as stress, sunlight, illness or surgery and steroids, a poor diet. Diet is extremely important too as many foods have a high concentration of arginine, a well known trigger (to learn more about more than 300 foods that are beneficial and which ones to be avoided, please go to our Herpes Diet page: MediViral Herpes Diet Page.

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, there is presently no cure for herpes. A healthy immune system and lifestyle plays a very important role in controlling the outbreaks. Healthy nutrition, exercise, daily supplements, anti-viral medicines and rest is also important. There are new studies that show that certain ingredients can kill the virus, reducing or eliminating breakouts also speeding up the healing process.
 

Herpes is highly contagious, even when no symptoms are present. A person who has herpes may potentially be shedding active virus, even when there is no evidence of a breakout. When somebody becomes infected with HSV, it will generally remain dormant. After a while, herpes outbreaks usually become less severe and less frequent. Unfortunately, this is not the case for everybody.
 

There are two types of herpes simplex viruses:
1) Herpes Type 1 (HSV-1), referred as “Oral Herpes”;
2) Herpes Type 2 (HSV-2), referred as “Genital Herpes”.

There are two forms of herpes: oral herpes, more commonly known as cold sores, and genital herpes.
The virus will reside in your body for life, often laying dormant, appearing when triggered. Anti-viral therapy such as MediViral will help to lessen the severity of and frequency of herpes outbreaks.
There are several human herpes virus types:

Conditions caused by the herpes virus are the following:

Herpes is most contagious during a breakout, when the skin over the infected area may be itchy or tingly (often called the “prodromal period”), also when active sores or healing lesions are present. The virus is contagious until the skin is fully healed. Herpes is always potentially contagious even when no symptoms are present.
 

Viral shedding occurs when the virus is active in the skin or in saliva without any signs or symptoms of an outbreak. People with recurrent oral herpes shed the virus in their saliva approximately 5%, people with genital herpes may shed the virus from the genital area approximately 6-10% of the time.
 

Yes, a cold sore is the common name for oral Herpes or Herpes Simplex 1 virus.
 

Yes. You are more likely to contract oral herpes from kissing at the time of outbreak, and/or when kissing where the actual sores are. However, there might be a “grey area” right before an outbreak or towards the end where you can still get infected with the virus.
 

It is a malicious virus that can make itself invisible to the immune system. Once in contact with a new host, the herpes virus quickly penetrates the nerve fiber and keeps penetrating until it reaches the ganglion where it can remain dormant for a long time. It is passed from one person to another by close, any direct contact. The most common mode of transmission is through kissing, vaginal, anal or oral sex.
 

When HSV is present on the surface of the skin of an infected person it can easily pass on to another person through the moist skin which lines the mouth, anus and genitals. The virus may also pass onto another person through other areas of human skin, as well as the eyes.
 

It varies from individual to individual, but on average someone with recurrent genital herpes will experience 4 or 5 outbreaks a year. Most people experience fewer and less severe outbreaks over time. Most outbreaks last approximately 7-14 days.
 

Yes. It is also important to remember that genital herpes can be transferred to oral. The symptoms of both are similar but HSVB-1 (oral herpes) is generally a milder infection than HSV-2 (genital herpes).
 

Just in the U.S, there are over 1,000,000 new cases of herpes every year. Currently 45 million people are infected with the herpes virus. This represents approximately 1 in 5 Americans. 56% of individuals 14 years or older show evidence of a previous HSV-1 infection when their blood is tested for HSV-1 antibodies. Oral herpes is even more common. It is believed that nearly 70 million Americans have oral herpes (HSV-1).