Modern Methods of Herpes Treatment: from Traditional Antiviral Therapy through Vaccines, and Genetic Engineering (review)

Herpesvirus infections caused by herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) constitute a global public health issue, affecting billions of people and entailing significant physical, emotional, and socioeconomic consequences. This review explores contemporary approaches to herpes treatment, ranging from traditional antiviral therapy (acyclovir, valacyclovir, famciclovir), which suppresses viral replication but does not eliminate latent viruses, to cutting-edge methods such as novel antiviral agents (pritelivir, amenamevir), vaccines (HSV529, RVx201, GEN-003), gene editing technologies (CRISPR-Cas9), and immunotherapy. Special emphasis is placed on HSV epidemiology, and its resistance to therapy, highlighting the urgent need for strategies eliminatinglatent viruses and alleviate the societal burden of the infection.