by KYW's medical editor Dr. Brian McDonough

In the late seventies and early eighties it was on the cover of virtually every magazine and on the minds of a generation that had been raised in a culture of free love with seemingly no consequences. The herpes virus could be spread sexually and unlike so many other STD’s it could not be treated and eradicated with an antibiotic. Of course, since that time the emergence and knowledge of HIV as well as hepatitis b and human papilloma virus has taken some of the initial sting away.
 
Certainly there are medications to block recurrences but millions of Americans deal with herpes on a regular basis.

That is why new research in the journal Nature is so promising. Researchers think they have figured out how the herpes virus maintains its ability to lay dormant and then attack periodically throughout a person’s life. The research is very early, no medications yet, but there is hope it could lead to developments.