Hello, I have been suffering from a persistent dermatological std for almost 11 years.
The symptoms appeared 48 hours after intercourse with a new partner. The initial onset was severe flu like symtoms that lasted a few hours and incredibly swollen glands in the neck. The swollen glands in the neck persisted for about 2 weeks.
Unlike HSV2 this infection causes ongoing symptoms, they never go away.
The infection basically consists of urethritis, balanitis, burning, rectal burning and secretions, sweating from the groin and an unpleasant smell from all areas. It's a very nasty illness.
I have only ever once stumbled across this exact problem once online and it was in about 2002.
The infection seems like it persists systemically as I get very unusual chills/shivers and sometimes sweating too.
I know this is an std as the person who infected eventually apologised for infecting me and admitted that she also still has the infection.
The only Doctor I have ever seen who has any idea what this problem is was a dermatologist. He seemed to know before I even showed him the symptoms. He basically said "oh no you've got that, unlucky, not a lot you can do about that".
So, as the condition has completely dominated my life since the year 2000 I really would like some answers.
How do I find out what kind of virus this is? It definitely isn't just HSV2. The manifestation was identical in the person who infected me.
How are viruses isolated? Can I give blood?
Viruses from what I understand categorised into several groups.
Acute: meaning self limiting
Slow infection: long incubation periods but usually lifelong
Chronic infection: persists but is cleared after a long period of time
Latent infection: Life long infection but becomes inactive at times
What confuses me is my infection was very fast to incubate, isn't latent because it's completely chronic but from what it looks like won't go away so doesn't seem to fit.
How do I get microbiologists to tell me the structure of the virus I am dealing with. I'm determined to get to the bottom of this. Just because an illness is rare doesn't mean it should just be ignored.
Please help