I cured it!

I have contracted herpes twice (different sites of infection; different sexual partners), and each time I cured it with a simple act: burning. The idea is simple-- herpes lives in nerve cells, primarily sensory nerves. Nerve cells depend on live tissue for their survival-- if the tissue they innervate dies, they will often die themselves. So if one kills the skin with a burn, the nerve cell stands a good chance of dying. Once the infected nerve cell(s) dies, white blood cells called macrophages come to clean up the debris, including any viral particles left around. Then, you're cured!

Here's what I did: I created small, third-degree burns at the site of each lesion using a wood-burning tool with a pointed tip. One could probably use a soldering iron too. The burn needs to be a severe singe about a millimeter deep but need not cover any lateral area greater than the obvious herpes lesion. There will be pain at the first instant, but it will subside in about a second when the nerve ending is killed. Be brave and get a good singe. In some cases, the skin right around the edge of the burn will actually turn black. Apply good hygiene and Antibiotics for the next week or so.

You MAY need a second burn at some lesion sites. The nerve cell will sometimes be a plucky little die-hard; it will survive the initial burn and send new nerve endings back into the skin. If so, you might see a small red bump arising in the scar tissue of the initial burn. Go ahead and burn it again. I've never had one survive more than two burns. Similarly, there may be new outbreaks from nerve cells that had been infected earlier but were not actively erupting at the time of your first burn, so these will need to be singed too.

I believe that the dependence of a nerve cell on live tissue to innervate is the explanation for the success of this technique. But there may be something specific about the burning process. In other words, it might not work if you killed the tissue with freezing or other kinds of damage. Heat causes specific changes in the shape of proteins, and burns are known to change the way the immune system activates (for you biologically savvy readers, Th1 immune reactions control herpes better than Th2 reactions).

Good luck, and please post your results back here!