There are three common and major drugs used to treat herpes which are: Acyclovir (Zovirax), Famciclovir (Famvir), and Valacyclovir (Valtrex) which are taken orally or in the case of Acyclovir it also comes as an ointment for external use (Herpes Simplex) or in the worst case scenario it can be supplied intravenously.
Initial treatment: this is given when a first time outbreak is experienced a drug therapy will be ordered for a brief course of seven to ten days to relieve or prevent them from getting worse. If, not result is seen, a person must stay under the drug therapy for a longer time.After the initial treatment, the doctor will decide which drug therapy option is more convenient to be used.
Intermittent Treatment: consists of taking the drugs for two and up to five days as soon as the sores start showing up or the initial outbreak symptoms are felt. This will ease the symptoms and make them go away faster but the sores will disappear on their own.
Suppressive Treatment: this treatment will be used when the outbreaks are often experienced meaning that the person must have six or more outbreaks a year, so the antiviral drug must be taken every day which reduces the outbreaks in a 70% or more and in many cases no outbreaks at all.
In order for a doctor to decide if suppressive treatment must be started, regardless of the amount of outbreaks, it is the frequency in which they are experienced and if they are severe enough that interferes with daily life. It is also proven that those taking the suppressive treatment, have less chances of infecting their sexual partners since antiviral reduce viral shedding when the virus duplicates itself on the skin surface.
