There is no known treatment for either Primary or Secondary herpes. The only
treatment possible is supportive and symptomatic, treating fever separately, pain separately and so on. An anti-viral drug called Acyclovir has shown considerable
promise in treating the condition.
The oral or genital lesions usually heal on their own in 7 to 10 days unless an individual has an underlying condition which weakens the immune system, in which case the infection may be more severe and last longer.
Once infected, the virus stays in the body for the rest of a person's life and recurrences of active infection may occur. Recurrences may be precipitated by overexposure to sunlight, fever, stress, acute illness, and medications or conditions that weaken the immune system (such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, or use of corticosteroids).