Herpes: oral and genital

April 2003     View PDF     En español
Reprinted from www.aidsmeds.com, US

Can herpes be prevented?

Vaccines to prevent herpes virus infections are currently being studied and it is felt that an effective vaccine may be available in three to five years. Vaccines will only function to prevent the infection from occurring in the first place—they won’t likely help control flare-ups in patients who are already infected.

As discussed in the previous section on treatment, herpes flare-ups can be prevented using long-term therapy with acyclovir, valacyclovir, or famciclovir. However, long-term therapy is usually reserved only for patients who have a history of frequent flare-up recurrences.