Herpes is familiar to the majority of people as a disease, which is able to destroy the plans for the evening, spoil the date or even interfere with the usual life style on a regular basis. Though there is no cure for herpes, modern medicine offers a range of medications to help people cope with the disease, reduce the frequency and severity of its recurrences.
It has been a long time since medications became a part of human's life. For centuries they help people overcome many diseases, saving lives and improving health of the humans. However, they may also introduce additional threats and dangers due to the possible side effects and adverse reactions, which are inherent to all the medicines, including the antiviral drugs, which are used to treat herpes outbreaks. Therefore, considering the use of any medication we should always mind its potential to cause side effects. It becomes even more important while considering the options for long term use (so called suppressive therapy against herpes).
Nowadays, the most common anti-herpes medications are Zovirax, Valtrex and Famvir, which are prescription pills to be used either periodically or on a regular basis for a long period of time. In general, all these drugs are well-tolerated by patients and do not cause serious side effects.
Zovirax (acyclovir) may cause headache, nausea or diarrhea as the most common adverse reactions, when used on the long term basis (though only 2-5 % of all the patients, treated with Zovirax, may experience these side effects). When used to treat genital herpes, Zovirax may also cause vomiting (about 2.7% of patients).
The side effects of Valtrex (valacyclovir) are also said to be mild and usually do not make patients stop taking the medicine. The most common side effects of Valtrex, when used to treat cold sores, are headache (16%) and dizziness (3%). Treating genital herpes, the drug may cause headache, nausea, stomach pain, cold, and sore throat.
The safety profile of Famvir is close to other anti-herpes pills. The most common side effects are headache, nausea and diarrhea.
There is an important precaution common to all the anti-herpes medications: the doses of the medicines should be reduced to treat herpes in patients with kidney problems. It is said that too high doses may cause acute renal failure or central nervous system symptoms in people with underlying renal disease.
Finally, there is one more thing to keep in mind: "Better safe than sorry this old wisdom reminds people how important it is not only hope for the better, but take certain steps and practical means to make the hopes come true. Speaking about herpes, there are several rules or precautions, following which helps manage herpes more effectively and decrease the risk of getting the virus or transmitting it to another person.
- Keep the area affected with herpes as clean and dry as possible; it helps to heal the lesions quicker. - Avoid touching the infected area during an outbreak, and wash your hands after contact with the area. - It is recommended to avoid sexual relations during the active herpes outbreaks. - Use condoms to prevent genital herpes transmission.
The last but not least fact about herpes is that the virus becomes weaker with every next outbreak, so treating one herpes occurrence makes a person stronger in struggle against this unpleasant condition.
Nick
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