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Facts About Cold Sores
by Denny Bodoh
Cold sores are unsightly, contagious and very painful sores, normally occurring
on the edge of the lip or nose.
Cold sores are created by the replication process of the herpes simplex virus
type 1 or type 2. Current studies show that about 77 percent of cold sores are
caused by the herpes simplex type 1 and about 23 percent by the type 2 version
of this simplex virus.
For the most part, cold sores caused by either type of the herpes virus are
identical. They both look the same, hurt the same, are just as contagious, and
last about the same amount of weeks.
Cold sores will occur and reoccur in about the same location as the initial
infection. For example, if your cold sore appears on your upper left lip, then
this is the site of the original infection. The virus that causes cold sores
lives in the nerve cells. It will seek out the nearest nerve fibers at the site
where the virus enters the body. That herpes virus will make a home in that
particular nerve fiber for the rest of your life.
Now don't be fooled. You can be infected several times in different locations.
If another cold sore appears on your lower right lip, this is a different
infection and you now have located another "family" of the cold sore virus
living in another nerve fiber.
When you have a cold sore, keep in mind that you are not only very contagious
to others, but to other locations on your own body too. Cold sores can appear
anywhere on the body where the virus found a crack in the protective skin layer.
The herpes simplex virus normally is in hibernation farther down the nerve
fibers from the surface. If you get a cold sore on your upper left lip, chances
are this virus is hiding in the nerve ganglia near your left ear.
Your body defenses create cold sore anti-bodies each time you have a cold sore
outbreak. These anti-bodies surround and help keep the herpes virus asleep.
Should there be some stress in another part of your body, these defenses may
weaken and the cold sore virus will snatch the opportunity to move to the
surface and create new viruses.
The herpes simplex virus cannot reproduce itself. The virus will enter a nerve
cell and force the cell to clone copies of itself. When the cell becomes full of
new virus, the original virus will destroy the cell to release all the new
clones. This destruction of millions of cells in a close area create those
hideous open cold sores.
The open cold sore would be painful enough, but it is even more so because the
herpes virus creates the cold sore right on the end of that nerve fiber. The
pain is quite similar to a dentist hitting a nerve.
The most common way of infecting others with cold sores is kissing. Doting
relatives and friends usually infect children before they are seven. Remember,
you are contagious from the first tingle until about two days after complete healing.
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