Genital herpes often recurs. Nearly 60% of patients relapse within one year after the first HSV-2 herpes virus infection, mostly within 1 to 4 months after the primary infection. It can relapse 4 to 6 times in the first year, and the number decreases thereafter. Only 14% relapse after HSV-1 infection, which is much lower than the recurrence rate of HSV-2 infection. Due to the repeated attacks of recurrent genital herpes and the difficulty in controlling it, and the sometimes severe pain, patients often have a heavy psychological burden and psychological disorders, fear of cancer, fear of infecting sexual partners, avoidance of sexual life with sexual partners, unwillingness to interact with the opposite sex, sexual dysfunction, affecting family harmony, and even depression.
Genital herpes virus is closely related to genital malignant tumors. As early as the 1960s, it was proposed that the HSV-2 herpes virus that causes genital herpes may be a potential carcinogenic factor for cervical cancer, and it was found that genital herpes is often complicated by cervical cancer. Women who have had genital herpes are 5 to 10 times more likely to develop cervical cancer than those who have not. Recently, HSV-2 herpes virus-specific antigens have been found in cervical cancer tissues, exfoliated cells or precancerous cells, indicating that HSV-2 herpes virus plays an important role in the occurrence of cervical cancer. In addition, herpes simplex virus-like particles have also been observed in materials from patients with penile cancer.
In recent years, people have also noticed the severity of HSV-2 infection in pregnant women. The most important thing is the transmission to newborns. In early pregnancy, pregnant women with genital herpes can affect the fetus, resulting in miscarriage or stillbirth. Infants with congenital infection may have herpes zoster at birth, epileptic seizures, and hepatosplenomegaly. If retrograde infection occurs through birth canal infection or premature rupture of amniotic membranes, mild cases may have no obvious clinical symptoms for several days or even weeks after birth. Early symptoms may only be poor feeding and excitement, followed by viremia or encephalitis. In severe cases, disseminated genital herpes infection occurs, which may cause high fever, dyspnea, bleeding, and central nervous system lesions, with a poor prognosis.
