Herpes Genitalis

99% OF THE WORLD POPULATION IS INFECTED WITH HERPES VIRUS AND YOU ARE NOT AN EXCEPTION!

The term "herpes" (from the Greek language herpein - creep) has been known to doctors for more than 2000 years. "Cold" or "febrile herpes", was described by the Roman physician Herodotus in 100 BC. References to it had been found in the treatises of famous doctors, "the fathers of medicine": Hippocrates, Avicenna and Paracelsus.

In their practice, doctors of many specialties face the diseases caused by viruses of the Herpesviridae family, which account for 8 antigenic serotypes of viruses.

Herpes viruses are widespread in the human population, they can affect all organs and systems of the body, causing latent, acute or chronic forms of infection. According to seroepidemiological studies, antibodies to herpes simplex virus are detected in 70-100% of the population, to the Epstein-Barr virus - in 50-85%, cytomegalovirus - up to 100% (T. N. Kuzmenko, 1996; A. G. Rakhmanova, V. K. Prigogina, V. A. Neverov 1995). It is necessary to mention a possible role of herpes simplex virus (HSV) (HSV-2 associated with human papilloma virus (HPV), CMV, chlamydia and mycoplasma) in the development of neoplastic processes in humans, such as cervical cancer and prostate cancer (Borisenko K .K et al, 1997; Isakov V. A. et al, 2006).

It was proved that HSV-2 can act as a carcinogenesis cofactor (tumor development), initiating development of dysplasia and maintaining it in a stable condition. Herpes viruses induce processes of atherosclerosis, adverse and sometimes fatal impact of HV on pregnancy and childbirth, the pathology of the fetus and newborn. HV represent a cofactor in the progression of HIV infection and AIDS (Isakov V. A. et al., 2006; Samgin M. A., Haldin A. A., 2002).

Herpes simplex virus HSV

The incidence of genital herpes in Russia for the period from 1993 to 2000 increased from 8.5 to 18.4 cases per 100 000 people, in Moscow - from 11.0 to 74.1 cases per 100 000 people.. Genital herpes is caused in 80-85% of cases by HSV-2, 20% - by HSV-1 (Table 11). The share of patients with HSV-1 has increased significantly over the past 10 years, due to the spreading of oral and genital contacts in the society. Sometimes genital herpes can be caused by both types of viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2). It was found that 20-50% of adults who come to the clinics for sexually transmitted infection, have antibodies to herpes simplex virus (K. K. Borisenko, 1997). In European countries, among the sexually transmitted infections, herpes takes the second place after trichomoniasis; England has 7 times more primary syphilis (Lvov N. D. et al., 1990; Samgin M. A., Haldin A. A., 2002). Only in the United States 98 million cases of herpes labialis and 8.5-9 million recurrent genital herpes are diagnosed each year, more than 5,000 patients with herpetic encephalitis and about 50 thousand with ophthalmoherpes are revealed (Glinskikh N. P., 1997). In our country, the number of hospitalized patients with herpes exceeds 2.5 million per year (Barinskiy I. F., Kasparov A. A. et al., 1986). Most patients are treated in the outpatient setting (Kasparov A. A. et al., 1990).

The incidence of some sexually transmitted infections in St. Petersburg for 1994-2004.
(Smirnova T. S. et al., 2005)*

* - St. Petersburg City Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic. However, the mentioned incidence of urogenital
herpes is not true due
to the low vigilance of doctors concerning herpes
and insufficient capacities of laboratories at the prevention and treatment facilities for the diagnosis of herpes.

According to WHO, herpes infections occupy the 2nd place (15,8%) as the causes of death due to viral infections, second only to influenza virus (35.8%). 90% of the world population is infected with herpes viruses, 2-12% suffer from recurrent herpes disease. Herpetic infection belongs to the so-called TORCH-complex and causes intrauterine disease. The recent sharp increase in the number of HVI, due largely to deteriorating environmental conditions, use of immunosuppressive therapy, as well as increasingly wide spread AIDS, has made the fight against these diseases a relevant medical and social challenge of practical health care.

Between 300 and 500 thousand patients with different forms of herpes annually turn to an ophthalmologist, and herpes keratitis and iridocyclitis account for about 60% of the total number of patients with corneal lesions (Glinskikh N. P., 1997). Ophthalmoherpes in developed countries is central to viral pathology of the eye sight, and up to 60% of corneal blindness cases are caused by herpetic keratitis (Kasparov A. A., 1981; Maychuk Yu. F., 1997).

Transmission of herpetic infections is usually done in close contact with a sick person or a carrier. The entry path for the herpes infection is represented by the disrupted mucous membranes of the lips, mouth, conjunctiva, the urogenital tract. The main route of the urogenital tract infection is sexual, that is why genital herpes is rarely observed before the start of sexual life. A special epidemiological risk is posed for those who have recurrent genital herpes associated with other infectious agents of the urogenital tract.

Mechanism of genital herpes development (herpes infection)