Valtrex and herpes Virus treatment

Dear Ask The Doctor: Hi I suffer from herpes for 14 years now it affected me so much, my relationship of 6 years has just broke down (my partner knew), i feel so scared about meeting and telling somebody new, i dont know how im going to meet anybody else, my life is in such turmoil am thinking about the herpes everyday as soon as i wake up im throwing up most days cos i feel so nervous and worried, ive been looking online and seen other suffers have been using this drug called Valtrex, aould my doctor prescribe me this if i go see them, am absolutly desperate, it going to be so hard to even go to the doctors and speak about this :(

Dear Kim: Herpes is a viral infection caused by herpes simplex virus type one or two. Typically once infected the virus remains dormant in the body and in times of decreased immunity you get an outbreak which is typically around the mouth ( for HSV 1) and in the genital area for HSV 2. You can use valtrex but that is only in case of an acute outbreak. The medication will not eradicate the virus but will make the duration of the symptoms shorter as well as decrease the pain caused by the same. Herpes is a very common infection and thus most of the people will have dormant viruses in their bodies. I hope this helps.Talk to your doctor about the same.