Symptoms of Herpes
Symptoms of Herpes
The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources
for Herpes includes the 2
symptoms listed below:
Research symptoms & diagnosis of Herpes:
Herpes: Complications
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Herpes Symptoms: Book Excerpts
Diagnostic Testing
Diagnostic testing of medical conditions related to Herpes:
Research More About Herpes
Do I have Herpes?
Herpes: Medical Mistakes
Herpes: Undiagnosed Conditions
Diseases that may be commonly undiagnosed in related medical areas:
Home Diagnostic Testing
Home medical tests related to Herpes:
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Wrongly Diagnosed with Herpes?
The list of other diseases or medical conditions
that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses
for Herpes includes:
See the full list of 24
alternative diagnoses for Herpes
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More about symptoms of Herpes:
More information about symptoms of Herpes and related conditions:
Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms
Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list
of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions,
or drug side effect causes of that symptom.
Medical Books Online about Herpes
Medical Books Excerpts
Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Herpes
are available from published medical books
for more detailed information about Herpes.
Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.
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Patient Surveys for Herpes
Symptoms of Herpes: Online Medical Books
16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE!
Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration,
for more information about the symptoms of Herpes.
Herpes simplex:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
In neonates, HVH symptoms usually appear 1 to 2 weeks after birth. They range from localized skin lesions to a disseminated infection of organs, such as the liver, lungs, or brain. Common complications include seizures, mental retardation, blindness, chorioretinitis, deafness, microcephaly, diabetes insipidus, and spasticity. Up to 90% of infants with disseminated disease die.
Primary infection in childhood may be localized or generalized and occurs after an incubation period of 2 to 12 days. After brief prodromal tingling and itching, localized infection causes typical primary lesions. These erupt as vesicles on an erythematous base, eventually rupture and leave a painful ulcer, followed by a yellowish crust. Vesicles may form on any part of the oral mucosa, especially the tongue, gingiva, and cheeks. Healing begins 7 to 10 days after onset and is complete in 3 weeks.
Generalized infection begins with fever, pharyngitis, erythema, and edema. Vesicles occur with submaxillary lymphadenopathy, increased salivation, halitosis, anorexia, and a fever of up to 105° F (40.6° C). Herpetic stomatitis may lead to severe dehydration in children. A generalized infection usually runs its course in 4 to 10 days. In this form, virus reactivation causes cold sores — a single or group of vesicles in and around the mouth.
Genital herpes usually affects adolescents and young adults. Typically painful, the initial attack produces fluid-filled vesicles that ulcerate and heal in 1 to 3 weeks. Fever, regional lymphadenopathy, and dysuria may also occur.
Usually, herpetic keratoconjunctivitis is unilateral and causes only local signs and symptoms: conjunctivitis, regional adenopathy, blepharitis, and vesicles on the lid. Other ocular effects may include excessive lacrimation, edema, chemosis, photophobia, and purulent exudate.
Both types of HVH can cause acute sporadic encephalitis with altered level of consciousness, personality changes, and seizures. Other effects may include smell and taste hallucinations and neurologic abnormalities such as aphasia.
Herpetic whitlow, an HVH finger infection, affects many nurses. First the finger tingles and then it becomes red, swollen, and painful. Vesicles with a red halo erupt and may ulcerate or coalesce. Other effects may include satellite vesicles, fever, chills, malaise, and a red streak up the arm.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Herpes zoster:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Herpes zoster begins with fever and malaise. Within 2 to 4 days, severe deep pain, pruritus, and paresthesia or hyperesthesia develop, usually on the trunk and occasionally on the arms and legs in a dermatomal distribution. Pain may be continuous or intermittent and usually lasts from 1 to 4 weeks. Up to 2 weeks after the first symptoms, small red nodular skin lesions erupt on the painful areas. (These lesions typically spread unilaterally around the thorax or vertically over the arms or legs.) Sometimes nodules don't appear at all, but when they do, they quickly become vesicles filled with clear fluid or pus. About 10 days after they appear, the vesicles dry and form scabs. (See Recognizing shingles.) When ruptured, such lesions usually become infected and, in severe cases, may lead to the enlargement of regional lymph nodes; they may even become gangrenous. Intense pain may occur before the rash appears and after the scabs form.
Occasionally, herpes zoster involves the cranial nerves, especially the trigeminal and geniculate ganglia or the oculomotor nerve. Geniculate zoster may cause vesicle formation in the external auditory canal, ipsilateral facial palsy, hearing loss, dizziness, and loss of taste. Trigeminal ganglion involvement causes eye pain and, possibly, corneal and scleral damage and impaired vision. Rarely, oculomotor involvement causes conjunctivitis, extraocular weakness, ptosis, and paralytic mydriasis.
In rare cases, herpes zoster leads to generalized central nervous system infection, muscle atrophy, motor paralysis (usually transient), acute transverse myelitis, and ascending myelitis. More commonly, generalized infection causes acute urine retention and unilateral diaphragm paralysis. In postherpetic neuralgia, most common in elderly persons, intractable neurologic pain may persist for years. Scars may be permanent.
Patients with immunodeficiency disorders may develop disseminated zoster. Lesions are bilateral and not limited to dermatomal distribution.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Genital herpes:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
After a 3- to 7-day incubation period, fluid-filled vesicles appear, usually on the cervix (the primary infection site) and possibly on the labia, perianal skin, vulva, or vagina of the female and on the glans penis, foreskin, or penile shaft of the male. Extragenital lesions may appear on the mouth or anus. In both males and females, the vesicles, usually painless at first, will rupture and develop into extensive, shallow, painful ulcers, with redness, marked edema, tender inguinal lymph nodes, and the characteristic yellow, oozing centers.
Other features of initial mucocutaneous infection include fever, malaise, dysuria and, in females, leukorrhea. Rare complications (generally from extragenital lesions) include herpetic keratitis, which may lead to blindness, and potentially fatal herpetic encephalitis.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Herpes simplex:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Primary infection in childhood may be generalized or localized.
In neonates, HVH symptoms usually appear 1 to 2 weeks after birth. They range from localized skin lesions to a disseminated infection of such organs as the liver, lungs, and brain. Common complications include seizures, mental retardation, blindness, chorioretinitis, deafness, microcephaly, diabetes insipidus, and spasticity. Neonates with disseminated disease have a high mortality.
Generalized infection
After an incubation period of 2 to 12 days, onset of generalized infection begins with fever, pharyngitis, erythema, and edema. After brief prodromal tingling and itching, typical primary lesions erupt as vesicles on an erythematous base, eventually rupturing and leaving a painful ulcer, followed by a yellowish crust. Healing begins 7 to 10 days after onset and is complete in 3 weeks.
Vesicles may form on any part of the oral mucosa, especially the tongue, gingiva, and cheeks. In generalized infection, vesicles occur with submaxillary lymphadenopathy, increased salivation, halitosis, anorexia, and a temperature as high as 105° F (40.6° C). Herpetic stomatitis may lead to severe dehydration in children.
A generalized infection usually runs its course in 4 to 10 days. In this form, virus reactivation causes cold sores — single or grouped vesicles in and around the mouth.
Localized infection
Genital herpes usually affects adolescents and young adults. Typically painful, the initial attack produces fluid-filled vesicles that ulcerate and heal in 1 to 3 weeks. Fever, regional lymphadenopathy, and dysuria may also occur.
Usually, herpetic keratoconjunctivitis is unilateral and causes only local symptoms, including conjunctivitis, regional adenopathy, blepharitis, and vesicles on the lid. Other ocular symptoms may be excessive lacrimation, edema, chemosis, photophobia, and purulent exudate.
Other signs and symptoms
Both types of HVH can cause acute sporadic encephalitis with an altered level of consciousness, personality changes, and seizures. Other effects include smell and taste hallucinations and neurologic abnormalities such as aphasia.
Herpetic whitlow, an HVH finger infection, commonly affects health care workers. First, the finger tingles and then it becomes red, swollen, and painful. Vesicles with a red halo erupt and may ulcerate or coalesce. Other effects may include satellite vesicles, fever, chills, malaise, and a red streak up the arm.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Herpes zoster:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Herpes zoster usually runs a typical course with classic signs and symptoms. Serious complications sometimes occur.
Onset of disease
Herpes zoster begins with fever and malaise. Within 2 to 4 days, severe deep pain, pruritus, and paresthesia or hyperesthesia develop, usually on the trunk and occasionally on the arms and legs in a dermatomal distribution. Pain may be continuous or intermittent and usually lasts from 1 to 4 weeks.
Skin lesions
Up to 2 weeks after the first symptoms, small, red, nodular skin lesions erupt on the painful areas. These lesions commonly spread unilaterally around the thorax or vertically over the arms or legs. Sometimes nodules don’t appear, but when they do, they quickly become vesicles filled with clear fluid or pus.
About 10 days after they appear, the vesicles dry and form scabs. (See Skin lesions in herpes zoster.) When they rupture, such lesions commonly become infected and, in severe cases, may lead to the enlargement of regional lymph nodes; they may even become gangrenous. Intense pain may occur before the rash appears and after the scabs form.
Cranial nerve involvement
Occasionally, herpes zoster involves the cranial nerves, especially the trigeminal and geniculate ganglia or the oculomotor nerve. Geniculate zoster may cause vesicle formation in the external auditory canal, ipsilateral facial palsy, hearing loss, dizziness, and loss of taste.
Trigeminal ganglion involvement causes eye pain and, possibly, corneal and scleral damage and impaired vision. Rarely, oculomotor involvement causes conjunctivitis, extraocular weakness, ptosis, and paralytic mydriasis.
Rare complications
In rare cases, herpes zoster leads to generalized central nervous system infection, muscle atrophy, motor paralysis (usually transient), acute transverse myelitis, and ascending myelitis. More commonly, generalized infection causes acute retention of urine and unilateral paralysis of the diaphragm. In postherpetic neuralgia, a complication most common in elderly patients, intractable neuralgic pain may persist for years. Scars may be permanent.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Herpes Simplex Virus:
Herpes Simplex Virus - signs & symptoms
(The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult)
- Neonatal infection:
- HSV-2, the most common cause of neonatal infection, is usually acquired from maternal labial lesions, but a history of previous or current genital HSV infection is present in only 20–30% of mothers who deliver infected infants. HSV-2 can be transmitted to the infant without rupture of the amniotic membranes or after delivery by cesarean section:
- HSV-1 can be transmitted to a neonate by any adult with active herpes labialis.
- A vesicular rash or bullae are present at birth or within a few days in almost all infants.
- Disseminated infection (32% of cases) involves the liver, lungs, adrenals, and sometimes the CNS.
- Localized CNS infection (33% of cases) presents with irritability, bulging fontanelle, or seizures.
- Localized skin, eye, or mouth infection (35% of cases) presents with rash alone, keratitis, or chorioretinitis.
- Gingivostomatitis:
- Fever and irritability precede the development of vesicular lesions on the lips, gingiva, and tongue. The vesicles then break down and become gray ulcers that are friable and bleed easily.
- Children refuse to drink because of the mouth pain and are at risk of dehydration.
- The child usually starts to improve in 3–5 days and recovers in 14 days.
- Latent virus causes recurrent stomatitis or labiitis.
- Encephalitis:
- The illness begins with fever, malaise, and irritability that last 1–7 days and progress to mental status changes, seizures, and coma. Meningeal signs are not common.
- Patients can develop hemiparesis, cranial nerve palsy, and visual field defects.
- No presence of oral or genital lesions
- It is the result of a primary infection in 30% of cases and recurrent in 70%.
- Vulvovaginitis:
- 35–50% of patients with the 1st episode of genital herpes will be able to give a history of genital HSV infection in their contact.
- The primary illness is characterized by fever, headache, malaise, and myalgias. Local genital symptoms include severe pain, itching, dysuria, vaginal or urethral discharge, and tender inguinal adenopathy. The genital lesions begin as vesicles and progress to ulcers before they crust over. Lesions last for 2–3 weeks.
- An aseptic meningitis syndrome occurs in 1–35% of cases. Patients will have fever, headache, meningismus, and photophobia.
- Latent virus causes recurrent episodes, which are painful but less severe than in primary infections.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, 2008
Herpes as a Cause of Symptoms or Medical Conditions
When considering symptoms of Herpes, it is also important to consider Herpes as a possible cause of other medical conditions.
The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Herpes may cause:
- (Source - Diseases Database)
Medical articles and books on symptoms:
These general reference articles may be of interest
in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:
Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis
About signs and symptoms of Herpes:
The symptom information on this page
attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Herpes.
This signs and symptoms information for Herpes has been gathered from various sources,
may not be fully accurate,
and may not be the full list of Herpes signs or Herpes symptoms.
Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Herpes may vary on an individual basis for each patient.
Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they
are indeed Herpes symptoms.
Genital herpes remains one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases, but most don't know they are infected. Learn how to stay safe and...
Join our panel of experts for a discussion of herpes treatment and prevention.
Sexual contact can sometimes result in problems. An unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases may be some of those consequences. But by...
Chlamydia is often refered to, and joked about, as "the clap". But for the 3 million people who are infected with it each year in the U.S. alone,...
See full list of 4 related videos
» Next page: Diagnostic Tests for Herpes
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