HSV 1 cause fever blisters or cold sores around the mouth and lips. HSV 1 has also been known to infect the CNS, giving the most common cause of meningoencephalitis, during a primary infection. With the discovery of a possible genital herpes sore, tests can be done to detect the virus directly and there are serology tests to display a possible early exposure to HSV 2. Detection of the virus from a body fluid can be done using immunoassays or immunoblots. Titers are performed on serum of patients with possible HSV 2 to detect an earlier infection or a possible primary infection.
Condoms provide the best means available but many still become infected.
The spreading of the virus is easily done by scratching and rupturing of a sore. One must avoid messing with the lesion until a doctor can be seen. Control of recurrences can be obtained through medicine both oral and topical. Acyclovir is the most popular and most prescribed for the control of outbreaks and symptoms. VIR may be a dominant means of symptomatic relief in the future since there are new strains of genital herpes in which Acyclovir has no effect.