Will there ever be a cure for herpes? And if so, when? Many people are asking these questions. With over 20% of the adult population with herpes now, a cure for herpes will certainly be big news. This article addresses the possibility for a cure, and when it might happen, and what to do in the meantime.
Research has been ongoing for many years, and a lot of progress has been made. It seems that the herpes virus is sneaky. When the virus is not on the surface, causing an outbreak, it seems to hide itself. When it is hidden, it is impossible for any drug or treatment to effectively kill the virus. But researchers have found the part of the viral genome codes that allow the virus to hide out during latent periods. They think they may be able to develop a drug that will make the virus come out of dormancy so that it can be eradicated by antiviral drugs. This drug would cause a massive herpes outbreak, but it would mean that the virus could be destroyed, once and for all.
This is a lot more complicated and stressful on the body by comparison to a flu shot for example. But learning how herpes embeds itself into the cells, and how it eludes treatment, is an important first step in finding a cure. For this reason, researchers are now confident that they are closer to creating drugs that could cure herpes.
Despite the large percentage of the adult population who have herpes, there is relatively little funding for research. Why, this is is not clear. It may be because herpes is usually not life threatening, while cancer and other diseases are. Funding for herpes is mostly by governments, whereas for cancer research it is government funding along with a lot of private funding, raised by donations and events such as Run for the Cure and other community fund raising drives.
It is estimated that an actual cure is still a long ways off. If the first found of tests on animals are successful, most experts feel it will still be 10 to 20 years until the cure would be available for humans. And none of them can say that the first animal trials will be successful for sure. While the researchers are hopeful, for most people with herpes, 10 to 20 years is a long time to maintain hope, and life goes on in the meantime.
The best thing for anyone who has herpes now is to learn to live with it, and this is best done by learning how to keep the virus in remission to eliminate or reduce outbreaks. It should be known that over half the people with herpes, do not have outbreaks at all. To anyone who is having regular outbreaks, this should be a good incentive to find out how these other people avoid outbreaks, and how they can join this group.
I have been helping people with herpes prevent outbreaks for over 16 years, and I offer free consultations by email. To email me, use the email address on my website:
http://www.herpesgone.com/
This free service is completely confidential.
