Herpes
Each year some 12,000 people contract genital herpes.
Genital herpes is caused by a virus. It is characterized by blisters or small sores around the genitals. Herpes is passed on through contact with the rash on the skin, or with the mucous membranes of mouth, penis, rectum or vagina of a person who has herpes. Herpes is highly contagious, especially when a person has blisters or sores.
Around a week after you have become infected with the herpes virus, you may observe the first symptoms. Or it may take longer. The first infection is usually the most severe. When the blisters have healed, the symptoms are over, but this doesn’t mean that the virus has left your body.
The symptoms can come back, even without sexual contact. The virus usually reappears at a time when your resistance is low. There are ways of alleviating the symptoms and limiting the number of attacks.
A cold sore (herpes labialis) is caused by a different but related type of herpes virus. The virus that causes cold sores can be passed on through oral sex to the genitals, where it can cause genital herpes. The reverse is also possible: genital herpes can appear in another person as cold sores.
