Why Covid-19 A Perceived Threat to Herpes Positives? Should You Worry?

Are you herpes positive? Sorry, I didn’t want to offend you, you might want to listen to me carefully. There is a new finding which indicates a probable co-infection between herpes and covid 19. In this talk, I am going to give you critical insights into the link between herpes and covid 19.

The global health system is in severe shock. Scientists around the world are burning the midnight oil to crack the challenges that corona has posed. Their endeavor is witnessing the wave of new coronavirus findings that today is our responsibility to share with you. Some elite scientific publications including NCBI have documented unusual co-infection between the two viruses.

Coronavirus pushes for our lungs, we only knew this far. However in some cases, as in China, it was reported that 31.6% of covid 19 patients are also battling ocular manifestations such as consistent conjunctivitis. Now, this cunning virus is becoming the cause of herpes reactivation.

Did it concern you?

Besides pulmonary symptoms, there have been reports of extrapulmonary complications from various parts of the globe, and that is what we think should concern you as a herpes patient.

Scientific reports from various peer reviews claimed the fact that the infection of covid 19 reactivates certain strains of herpes virus including Varicella-Zoster Virus and Cytomegalovirus. BioMed Central finding suggests that the instances of herpesvirus reactivation are frequent in severe conditions of covid-19.

Why Is This Happening?

Can you recall your mind to logic? Is it covid upsetting the nerve ganglia or something else flogging the beat?

Covid-19 is known to manipulate the biological mechanism of the body which is further interpreted as acquired immunosuppression such as lymphopenia (a medical condition where lymphocytes also known as white blood cells get abnormally low in the blood). People in jeopardy of herpes outbreak involves immunocompromised folks.

Now listen carefully,

Your immune system is compromised due to coronavirus and is already working vigorously to protect you from the covid infection. How would you suppose to fight another pandemic-inducing infection like herpes with compromised immunity?

Getting the point?

Therefore, I support the argument raised by various scientific reviews that it is your compromised immune system that might be at fault. This situation also raises the need to keep your immune system at an all-time high to help yourself better come up with any of these circumstances. If you want to boost your immune system, this guide (Alkaline Diet Foods: Can A Crafty Herpes Virus Be Conquered?) will help you boost the immunity manifold.

Who Might Be At Risk?

The data on co-infection of herpes and covid 19 are sparse, therefore, more scientific studies on the matter are sought. Presently available data on the coinfection of these two shows that only those who have a severe covid infection with a history of clinically diagnosed herpes (specifically HSV1, HSV2, VZV, and Cytomegalovirus) are at risk of reactivation.

Covid may trigger severe outbreaks of either cold sores or herpes zoster. It depends on how much your immune system is compromised. There isn’t any report citing the link between genital herpes and covid 19 yet reported.

Herpes positives by default are at risk of reactivation of herpes zoster and cold sores if their immune systems are compromised. It could be age factor, disease, anxiety, and anything which might stress out your immune system. I recommend my elders to please stay protected until a stable world environment.

Case Study

Case1: Pharmacy Times

It is a case study published in pharmacy times where a 39-year-old covid patient was admitted with advancing herpes zoster infection in Emergency Department. Inflammatory responses of the body to covid 19 might have reactivated latent herpes zoster.

He spotted fatigue and occasional diarrhea 10 days before he was admitted to the emergency department. He developed left trigeminal neuralgia in the next seven days. Three days after this, he started experiencing low-grade fever and decided to visit the emergency department.

At the time of his admission, there were no visible skin lesions and was immediately discharged with treatment to his symptoms. Later the same day, the patient developed the papulovesicular rash.

He was given acyclovir which was of no worth as it didn’t soothe him. 2 days later, he again visited the department and was given intravenous acyclovir to which his body reacted positively and the improvement was visible.

The physician later revealed that the patient contracted the VZV in his childhood and experienced chickenpox, but there was no history of recurrences. This study concluded that coronavirus could be held responsible for the rare manifestation of herpes zoster.

Case 2: NCBI

This is a case of a 70-year female with a medical history of hypertension and type 2 diabetes. She started experiencing shortness of breath, fever cough one week ago. No skin manifestations were reported at the time of clinical presentation. Laboratory results showed here positive for covid 19. She had a normal lymphocyte count and hence the physicians advised her to self-quarantine.

During days of quarantine, she started developing a rash on her left hip to which she responded forthwith and presented herself to her health provider via video.

She had her left superior buttock checked for any herpes outbreak and it was herpes zoster causing the ruckus in her life.

Final Words

The above studies are just a glimpse of several instances of concomitant infection between the two pathogens. I read several other peer reviews covering the same topic with conclusions reporting coinfection between covid and herpes virus. We saw even the latent year-long infection reactivating to the inflammatory responses of covid 19.

We have seen some severe reactivation of herpes zoster in response to coronavirus. If you are herpes positive with clinically diagnosed herpes zoster or cold sores, we recommend the prevention of covid 19 transmissions.

Yes, it’s actually a threat 😟. NCBI itself has documented some cases of concomitant infection between herpes and covid 19. These two pathogens together manifest severe herpes zoster😳😷🤒 and cold sores infection that you would want to avoid. I have read all the scientific peer reviews and articles on this topic and came to understand the important information which I think might be of your interest.🙂🙂🙂