How dangerous is pregnancy herpes?

Although gestational herpes is not particularly common, it can cause great harm to the health of pregnant women. The cause of gestational herpes is relatively complicated and is closely related to the pregnancy. If you do not pay attention to good treatment and conditioning, it will cause great harm to the health of the pregnant woman and the fetus. Especially in the first three months of pregnancy, this disease is most likely to occur.

The basis is:

Some sick women have low titer anti-basement membrane zone antibodies in their serum; half of the sick pregnant women have heat-labile herpes gestationis factor in their serum, which is an IgG anti-basement membrane zone antibody that can bind to complement C3 on the basement membrane zone of the pregnant woman's epidermis, activate the traditional complement pathway, and cause immune damage.

The herpes factor of pregnancy can enter the fetus through the placenta. The herpes factor of pregnancy is also often detected in the umbilical cord serum of newborns born to mothers with herpes pregnancy. Usually the fetus does not cause disease in the womb, but it can cause blisters on the newborn's skin after birth, which will naturally subside within a few weeks. About 2 months after birth, the pregnancy herpes factor will gradually disappear in the baby's body.

The rash often appears on the limbs:

Especially the hands and feet, but also the anterior surface of the trunk, head and face, but rarely the oral and genital mucosa. The rash is polymorphic, beginning with red urticarial plaques, as big as soybeans or larger, followed by papulovesicles on and adjacent to the erythematous base, followed by clustering and forming annularly distributed blisters, which soon merge together to form large bullae with tense blister walls, often accompanied by severe burning sensation or itching, causing the pregnant woman to be restless. The bullae rupture and form scabs, leaving pigmentation after healing. As skin lesions evolve gradually, they remain in different stages over a long period of time. Some lesions are close to healing, but new lesions may occur nearby.

The occurrence of skin lesions is closely related to pregnancy:

It often appears for the first time during pregnancy, and may occur as early as the first 3 months of pregnancy, but most patients develop it after 4 months of pregnancy until full term. The condition is sometimes mild and sometimes severe, and usually improves after delivery. Most cases disappear during the postpartum period, and at the latest disappear 8 months after delivery. The disease relapsed during the next pregnancy, with an earlier onset and more severe clinical manifestations. In addition, approximately 10% of patients develop the disease during the postpartum period.

Newborns born to mothers with gestational herpes are occasionally found to have the above-mentioned skin lesions, which are the same as those of the mothers and usually heal on their own after a few weeks.