 [ Symptoms ] what is genital herpes [ Disease ] herpes is a sexually transmitted disease std caused by the herpes simplex virus hsv hsv type 1 commonly causes fever blisters on the mouth or face oral herpes while hsv type 2 typically affects the genital area genital herpes however both viral types can cause either genital or oral infections most of the time hsv 1 and hsv 2 are inactive or silent  and cause no symptoms but some infected people have outbreaks of blisters and ulcers once infected with hsv people remain infected for life