The Many Faces Of Herpes - Zimbio

By filcan on

Genital herpes is not the only kind of herpes that exist today. There are other forms like cold sores and these can be painful and embarrassing as well not to mention the fact that they are a harder form of herpes to hide. Did you know that there are over 80 different forms of the herpes virus? It is a good thing that only 8 of them affect humans. The most common forms of herpes can affect both the mouth and genital areas, they do not stick to one localized area.

Genital herpes is the most well known form of herpes and it affects millions of Americans today and each and every year at least 1 million more herpes cases are reported. You can get this type of herpes through any sort of skin to skin touching and it is something that both men and women can get. The symptoms of genital herpes are rashes, bumps or even blisters. When you are having a genital herpes outbreak you are much more contagious than when you are not although herpes can still be spread when there are no symptoms felt or seen.

You can also catch herpes through oral to genital contact, not just genital to genital. Herpes is a virus and just like a cold it can be easily spread from one person to another. Some of those who get herpes cold sores only get these painful blisters once while others get them throughout their entire lives. If you have ever had a cold sore then you have herpes and you always will, there is nothing that can be done to get rid of this herpes virus.

You can get herpes through any sort of contact and sexual contact is the most common way to transfer this virus. Any kind of sexual contact including genital, oral and even anal sexual contact will put you at risk.

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Healing Herpes With Self-love - Zimbio

When I was a boy we lived in the Ghettoes of Toronto, Canada. We had just immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago. My mother struggled to raise four of us on a waitress’ salary. There was chaos and self-destruction all around us. Many of my playmates are no longer among the living. But none of this touched us- we were living a different life. My mother was a church-lady. She was strong and resilient and strict. All of us grew up in the church. The church kept us insulated from most of the horrors of poverty.

The church still has it’s influence on me. I feel it and walk it everyday and I am happy for it. I learned about love in the church. Not the love you see on TV and in the movies- a bigger love, a deeper love. That’s the one sermon from our Jamaican female pastor that I remember the most. When I was 13 she spoke about love. Jesus was all about love, he was love, he is love.

Bryan Ferry from Roxy music sings “Love is the drug that I need to score”. I disagree, I don’t believe that love is a drug- an intoxicant. That sounds more like infatuation to me. I believe that love is a medicine. The Medicine. For those of us in the sixty percent or more of the population with the herpes simplex virus Love is the most powerful healing tool.

Sarah Mclachlan who went to my alma mater-The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, sings “Your love is better than ice cream, better than anything I’ve ever had”. I would sing instead that “My love is better than valtrex, better than famvir or anything I’ve ever had”.

Don Miguel Ruiz writes that “healing requires the truth, forgiveness and self-love. With these three points the whole world will heal”. I will write about all three in this brief piece.

First the truth. Sixty percent or more of the population has herpes. It’s not the 20 or 25% figure thrown out by many who wish to downplay the true impact of the herpes pandemic. In a way it’s a cynical attempt to divide the herpes nation between those who get sores on their mouth and face from those who get sores on their genitals. It provides a flimsy excuse for people with cold sores to pretend it’s not herpes, to not get treatment and not to try and prevent others from being infected. Herpes is herpes- it’s one of the few things scientists and us in the holistic healing community agree on. Figures very widely but it cannot be disputed that between 50 and 80% of the population has herpes simplex 1 and between 20 and 25% of the population has herpes simplex 2, so if you factor in the number of people who have both types, the minimum number of people who have herpes simplex has to be at least 60% and is likely more. This is important because the message needs to get out to people with herpes that they are not part of some marginalized minority. If you have herpes you are part of a herpes nation that is a majority of the population. It is common and normal to have herpes. It is becoming uncommon not to have herpes. It is long past time for people with herpes to come out of the closet and speak up about herpes to help educate the people who don’t have herpes and to put a human face on this disease. The stigma only exists because of the shame people with herpes have agreed to carry. There is no need for this, no reason for this. Shame is not a product of love.

It makes no sense to me to be ashamed of getting a virus from an act of lovemaking or kissing rather than getting a disease from self-abuse or catching an air-borne virus from riding on a subway train. Some people do not love sex and therefore wish to denigrate anything that has to do with sex especially sexually transmitted infections. I learned a long time ago in church that true love is accepting and forgiving and inclusive. People with herpes are not lepers and need not allow themselves to be treated like lepers.

The truth is also that there is no cure for herpes and one isn’t likely in our lifetime. So herpes is a lifelong viral infection. The truth is that most people who have herpes don’t know it because they have never had a type-specific blood test for herpes either out of fear or lack of awareness. (Herpes tests are not normally part of a STI screening panel, so unless you demand one you may never get one) The truth is that people with herpes can be contagious even when there are no warning signs of the virus being active so safer sex is something that ought to be considered. The truth is that a person with herpes who does not make peace with the emotional and mental consequences of having herpes will not be able to manage their herpes as effectively as someone who does regardless of how much valtrex or famvir they take.

Forgiveness. Some people with herpes are still angry and resentful with the person who infected them. I can understand this because I hear so many stories. So many people are infected by people who didn’t warn them of their herpes status. Many people are infected by unfaithful partners. Some have been raped.

It’s natural to be angry and bitter when given a life-sentence like herpes. It took me a long time to let go of my negative feelings about my own infection. Everyone is living their own distinct experience with herpes. But I say most sincerely that sooner or later and I hope that it’s sooner, there must come a time to forgive and let go if you want to be healthy with herpes. Hanging on to the negative feelings not only damages you physically and otherwise often causing more outbreaks, but it binds you to the past, which you will never free yourself from until you forgive.

Forgive the person who gave you herpes if you can. And if you cannot, keep trying until you can. But more importantly forgive yourself. I treat so many people in my holistic herpes clinic who are continually punishing themselves for having herpes. They are angry at themselves thinking that they could have been smarter-full of regret and self recriminations. This is not love. Love forgives, love understands.

Be good to yourself, be gentle and loving and patient as if you were your own child. Forgive yourself and reclaim your self-esteem and self-love.

Do you love yourself? Do you really? If you have herpes and love yourself how would you act? Would you be ashamed of your herpes? Would you stop dating and deny yourself love and sex just because you have herpes? Would you be sitting in a vortex of anger and resentment towards the virus? Or would you life be all about love and peace and balance?

If you loved yourself- how would you eat? Would you smoke cigarettes and take recreational drugs, would you drink coffee knowing that it’s a trigger for your herpes and bad for your health all the way around?

If you loved yourself and loved others would you practice safer sex with a condom and/or anti-viral gel to help protect your loved one/s from your herpes, would you practice safer sex to protect yourself from other sexually transmitted infections? Would you perhaps be motivated to speak out and try to educate others on how to deal with herpes if they have it or how to protect themselves from herpes if they don’t, especially the young people who are just starting to explore their sexuality? If you loved yourself would you be afraid to warn your sex partners about your herpes status? The bible says that “true love casteth out all fear”.

You were born with the right to be happy and to enjoy your life and your health to the fullest, having herpes changes none of this.

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Follow-up file: Researcher’s herpes vaccine work meets resistance - State Journal-Register

A Springfield researcher’s development of a vaccine to protect against genital herpes, one of the world’s most common sexually transmitted diseases, has received a skeptical reception from the international scientific community so far, but the researcher is neither surprised nor discouraged.

“Science moves kind of like a glacier down a mountain,” said William Halford, associate professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. “As far as scientists are concerned, there’s nothing unusual about the rate at which this work has progressed.”

Background

Halford, 43, published the results of his latest discoveries in the August 2010 and March 2011 issues of the scientific journal PLoS ONE. In experiments with mice, he demonstrated almost total protection against herpes with a vaccine involving a live but weakened form of the herpes virus.

Even though other vaccines using live viruses have been popular and effective in protecting against diseases such as chicken pox, polio, measles, mumps and rubella, Halford faces an ideological battle with current scientific philosophy and regulatory agencies before his vaccine can be tested in humans.

That’s because Halford said genetic-engineering techniques available since the 1970s have led to a pervasive view that creating new vaccines with live viruses would be too risky for patients compared with other vaccine-development options.

In Halford’s March paper, he pointed out the recent failure in clinical trials of a genital-herpes vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline using pieces of protein from a virus — trials that cost the federal government $27.6 million between 2003 and 2009.

“If what you’re saying is that this approach, at the end of the day, really isn’t that good, the people who get money out of that approach for their research are usually not thrilled with you,” he said. “When you’re going against the grain, there’s no clear, well-defined path of how to go against the grain.”

Halford said it will take time to change the minds of scientists who are skeptical of his approach. That skepticism, he said, will influence whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration eventually allows clinical trials in humans with a weakened live virus.

Halford said his research in mice shows results 100 times better than the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine and much safer than even the polio or chicken pox or MMR vaccines, all of which can be encouraging for non-scientists. But he cautioned that clinical trials for humans are at least 10 years away.

About 1 billion people are carriers of genital herpes worldwide, and 20 million people are infected every year, which means young people have a one in 10 chance of acquiring incurable herpes before they marry.

What’s next

Halford said he is conducting more research at SIU to probe why his vaccine works so well. That data, over time, could lead to acceptance by influential scientists, he said.

“In science, you never change a prevailing belief system with one or two papers,” he said. “It just doesn’t work that way. What you do is you keep publishing on it. As far as scientists are concerned, there’s nothing unusual about the rate with which this work has progressed.”

Dr. Anna Wald, a herpes-vaccine researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle who is not associated with Halford, said it is “great” that Halford is working toward an effective vaccine. But she said good results in mouse research don’t necessarily transfer to clinical trials in humans.

Wald, who helped conduct research connected with the failed GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, also said there are important differences between herpes and viruses that cause diseases for which there are live-virus vaccines.

And she said safety-related concerns — that a weakened virus in a new vaccine could cause debilitating infections in patients — are real.

“Once you give someone a live-virus vaccine, you can’t take it back,” she said.

She didn’t deny, however, that Halford may be onto something with his research.

“He might be right, but I think a lot more work needs to be done before this really turns out to be quite as good as it seems,” Wald said.

Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.

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Gene May Be Linked to Frequent Cold Sores - WebMD

Study Suggests Some People May Have a Genetic Predisposition to Repeated Cold Sores

Nov. 18, 2011 -- Most of us have had an occasional cold sore, but some people get the painful, unsightly sores over and over again. These cold sores, which tend to appear on or around the lips, are caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1).

Exactly why they occur more frequently in some people was not known, but now new research suggests some of us may have a genetic predisposition to frequent, severe cold sores.

The study is published in the Journal of Infectious Disease.

If the new findings are validated in other groups of people and researchers can zero in on exactly how a gene increases cold sore risk, new treatments won't be far behind, says study researcher John D. Kriesel, MD. He is an infectious disease specialist at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City.

Kriesel and colleagues narrowed down their search to one specific gene called C21orf91, which the researchers also call the cold sore susceptibility gene 1.

But "genes only account for 21% of susceptibility to cold sores, the rest of the risk is environmental," Kriesel says. Outbreak triggers may include sun, wind, trauma, or stress.

As of now, many people who get frequent cold sores are treated with antiviral medication that targets HSV-1. These can be taken to prevent an outbreak or to shorten an existing one. Oral antiviral medications include acyclovir (Zovirax), famciclovir (Famvir), and valacyclovir (Valtrex).

"This research may help us predict who is vulnerable to getting cold sores frequently. And the hope is that it will lead directly to new therapies," says infectious disease specialist Bruce Hirsch, MD.

"Anywhere from 50% to 100% of us have this virus and only a third get cold sores frequently. That is intriguing," he says. Hirsch is an attending physician at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y.

"If we can identify a gene that can be modulated, it could go a long way to help these folks," says Richard J. Whitley, MD. He is a professor of pediatrics, microbiology, medicine, and neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Until new drugs are available, a little prevention goes a long way for people at risk of cold sores, he says.

"If you are out in the sun, put zinc oxide on the border where your lip and the skin of your face meet," Whitley says. Cold sores often develop along this area, which is called the vermilion border.

Dermatologist Michele Green, MD, looks forward to the day when there are new treatments she can offer people with frequent, severe cold sores. She works at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, and sees quite a few people who fit this bill.

"It can be really debilitating," she says. "Avoiding triggers such as sun and wind can also help prevent an outbreak."

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Meditation: For Stress and Herpes Outbreak Free Life - Zimbio

Stress plays a vital role in the recurrence of herpes virus. Base on studies, people who always experience continuous stress are more prone to getting some infectious diseases. Stress can be a great factor when it comes to our body and mind reaction to some illnesses. Some viral types of health problems, including herpes, have been observed to be influenced by stress. Stress comes in many forms – drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, poor diet, over work, lack of sleep, too much worry and anxiety.

Researchers say that our body’s immune system becomes weakened during period of stress. Types of stress usually associated with herpes deals with negative emotions such as guilt, hurt, worry and anxiety — especially in regard to genital herpes. Others include internal conflict, relationship conflict, lack of self love, low self esteem and poor self concept and lack of personal power.

Since herpes can be triggered by stress, learning to deal with life in a more relaxed manner would be a good way to start; and one way of doing this is through meditation.

Meditation has been proven to be effective in reducing stress. It lessens anxiety, can be effective for weight loss, boosting the immune system, and dealing with negative emotions through the act of remaining silent and calm for a period of time. While stress gives us the feeling of uneasiness and so much apprehension, meditation does the opposite; by being calm, you are helping your body to repair itself, and prevent it from acquiring new other infections due to the physical effects of stress.

Benefits of Meditation:

1. Heart rate and breathing slows down

2. Blood pressure normalizes

3. Mind ages at a slower rate

4. Your immune function improves

5. It reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety

6. It enhance immunity to illness

How Meditation Works

Meditation involves sitting in a relaxed position and clearing your mind. It’s necessary to have at least 5 to 20 distraction-free minutes to spend. You must have silence and privacy.

Different Types of Meditation

· Mantra Meditation – done by uttering words or group of words capable of creating transformation

· Aromatherapy Meditation – the meditation itself can calm and relax you, and aromatherapy brings a whole new set of benefits for you and anyone else in the room.

· Music Meditation – music can be very calming, and can deepen the experience of meditations

· Walking Meditation - this meditation combines mild exercise with meditation

· Mindfulness Exercise - mindfulness is one of those meditations that can be done anywhere.

Meditation is an effective way to eliminate stress from your life. Keeping your mind uncluttered from all of the distractions of life, you’re on the road to having and maintaining a peaceful life; free of stress and diseases such as the herpes virus.

By: Irene N Fabrigas

About the Author: If you are interested to know how suggestive meditation works as an alternative herpes treatment, check this solution to herpes program and discover its benefits.

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South African scientists win first Obasanjo science prize

Gilbert Nakweya

23 November 2011 | EN

The husband-and-wife team won a prize for work on HIV/AIDS

CAPRISA

[NAIROBI] Two South African researchers have been awarded the inaugural Olusegun Obasanjo Prize for scientific discovery and technological innovation, for their work on HIV/AIDS and herpes prevention.

Salim S. Abdool Karim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim, a husband-and-wife research team from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, received the award earlier this month (10 November) for their work on the use of a vaginal microbicide gel containing tenofovir — the culmination of 17 years of research into microbicides. The gel was found to be 39 per cent effective in reducing HIV transmission, above the statistically significant result of 33 per cent.

They also found that it appeared to have a dual effect, protecting against herpes simplex virus-2.

The prizerewards African scientists who have made outstanding achievements in scientific discovery or technological innovation. It is named after former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who attended the ceremony at the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Salim Abdool Karim told SciDev.Net: "Quarraisha and I are humbled to be the recipients of the Obasanjo Prize. We see this as an award not for us but for the success of a superb collaboration between the Center for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa; the University of KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa; Columbia University, United States;CONRAD; FHI 360 (formerly Family Health International); and Gilead Sciences.

"This award is an important milestone in my career as a scientist, and I am very thankful to the AAS for [it]," Karim added.

He said that women bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic in southern Africa and that tenofovir gel is the first prevention method to empower them directly to control the risk of HIV infection.

"I hope that this award will bring greater attention to the plight of the HIV epidemic for young women in Africa. We need greater efforts and greater resources to find ways to empower women to protect themselves against HIV infection in Africa," he said.

The prize comprises a certificate, a gold medal and US$5,000. Applicants' research should be in the fields of biotechnology, energy, information and communications technology or materials science.

Berhanu Abegaz, executive director of the AAS, said that the prize will help motivate scientific research in Africa; encourage young scientists to prioritise high-quality, relevant science and technology; and maybe help keep young scientists on the continent.

Shem O. Wandiga, managing trustee at the Centre for Science and Technology Innovations, in Kenya, said the prize will motivate many Africans to do quality work that improves the lives of their people.

"With time it may turn out to be the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for Africa," he said.

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