Not a doctor; can't give you medical advice. Just giving deductions I'm making based on current research which could all play out to be very, very wrong.
Valacyclovir is brand-named Valtrex. Basically, if you're ever diagnosed with herpes of any variant, you should ask your doctor about what to expect if you go on Valacyclovir to ward off recurring outbreaks. If those side effects don't sound disagreeable to you v. the possible mitigation of dementia/alzheimer's, then it might make sense to go on it.
I've got the former. I'd personally still also do the latter. Consider me paranoid, but if diagnosed, I'm sold on the side effects of a lifetime of valacyclovir being far less inconvenient than a descent into oblivion.
"Results: From 2005 through 2011, for the 24 anti-VZV vaccinated patients, the average number
of herpes relapses decreased to 0, correlated with an increased anti-VZV antibody level and
clinical recovery of all patients, whereas no improvement was observed for the 26 nonvaccinated
herpes patients."
A cure for herpes means the excision of viral DNA from the infected cells. Herpes is one of those viruses that stays with a person for life by means of establishing persistence with DNA insertion.
What you're drawing attention to there, if I'm reading it correctly, is that the presence of the antibodies resulting from the vaccine enables an immune response to consistently check an outbreak just as it's starting, potentially mitigating an outbreak before one becomes visibly apparent.
But I'm probably not reading it correctly. All I'm confident in is that anything short of literally cutting the viral DNA out of the infected cells won't actually cure an infection.
verb
1. relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition.
"he was cured of the disease"
synonyms: heal, restore to health, make well/better; archaic: cleanse
"after a long course of treatment, he was cured"
I'm referring to the colloquial usage of "cure", which is all anyone cares about in this context. Who cares if the DNA is there if the symptoms are completely gone?
Herpes sheds asymptomatically, and it can still infect neighboring cells as a result. Just because an outbreak isn't visible e.g. because the immune system counteracts it early on doesn't mean the virus isn't still spreading.
Like I said, unless the viral dna is excised, you'll always have it.
As an aside, you're aiming for the term "functionally cured." Since the virus could still shed... even that's not achieved here.
If you never notice any active infections then you think you’re pretty safe?