It's very important to understand how the herpes simplex virus works. It's not some separate organism floating around in your system that can be attacked, it's a piece of DNA that integrates into the infected nerve cell's nucleus. It can hide there from the immune system very effectively. The Immune system can only act when the virus is replicating and, even then, doesn't "kill" the virus, it only interferes with replication. Please take a look at the movie here that shows an animated view of how it works.

That's the bad news part of the story. The good news is that currently available antiviral meds like acyclovir, famvir and valtrex can very safely control herpes in most people. The other good news is that there is continual progress being made toward a vaccine.

I hope you'll join in the discussion here and learn why herpes isn't the end of the world, the end of happiness, the end of love sex, having children and all the good things in life.

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Paraphrased from Mark Twain