[thedoc (OP)]

Shura asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Hi Chris

I'm 52 year old South African male tested positive for herpes contracted in 1983.

Just recently i stopped eating all kinds meat and meat products for the past four months and despite my high level of stress,haven't experience symptoms as i would normally do.I really have serious stress due to a number of factors including loss of a house due to divorce,but have no visible signs and symptoms like sores on the penis head i normally experience under less or similar circumstances.

Would you recommend me for a free test in one of the hospital in South Africa for tests or the virus has simply gone underground due to lack of enough proteins in my body? Please help.

What do you think?

[chris]

Eventually you can mount a more effective immune response, which keeps the virus in check; alternatively it could be that, with successive reactivations, the latent, reactivatable viral burden harboured by the affected nerve cells becomes depleted resulting in low frequency of reactivation in future...