Herpes is extremely common, yet most people have no idea what it even is (other than scary). Continue reading to learn more about herpes and why it's important to you!
....Probably
Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) is a super common viral infection that you get from touching saliva/blood/mucus.
HSV can be contracted through sex, childbirth, contact with open sores, and sharing bodily fluids like semen or blood.
Pick Your Poison
There are many types of herpes virus, but the two most visible are -
1) Oral herpes (cold sores, duh) is the most common herpes virus infecting ⅔rds of the world population under the age of 50.
2) Genital herpes (you know what we mean) infects approximately 12% of the American population (age 14-49).
It should also be noted that you can get genital herpes from someone who has oral herpes coming into contact with your genitals, even if they don’t have a cold sore.
Ahh the passage of time....
Day 1 - the first infection
Days 4-7 - sores start to appear
Day 10 - sores start to disappear
Day 1 and beyond - herpes stays there in your body
Day 1 (insert scary music)
Herpes virus comes in contact with your body via broken skin or mucous membrane tissue (such as the mouth or genitals).
Proteins on the outside of the virus attach to specific proteins on your cells, tricking your cells into letting in the virus.
And the horror continues
Once inside, the virus sneakily inserts its “instructions” (its DNA genome) into our cells, causing our cell to make more copies of the virus.
Our own cells are tricked into making more and more of the virus!
Days 4-7: Things start to get messy
You’ll start to notice inflammation and maybe even a burning sensation on the skin around your mouth or genitals. This begins when our cells make so many viruses that they burst!
Our immune system may notice these infected cells and target them. When enough of the infected cells die or are killed, they’ll release all of the viral material that they’ve created. This causes our body to react by inflaming the area, causing a cold-sore-like lesion.
No one likes a creeper
Herpes lurks, working its way through a nerve cell to sit and wait...for life!
Herpes may not show any symptoms but stays asleep in your nerve cells from day 1 of infection - this is commonly called remaining dormant.
Even during these dormant periods, you can still transmit the virus; this is why you shouldn’t kiss babies (but let’s be honest you shouldn’t be kissing strangers babies anyways, that makes you the creeper).
Herpes can lurk?!
From time to time, the herpes virus will make copies of itself and release its viral copies back down the nerve to the skin, where the viruses will shed and replicate (expel from the body and make more copies of itself), producing sores/lesions.
This can be triggered by sunlight, stress, & viral illnesses.
Don't panic though
Billions of people have herpes - you are not alone (but maybe get tested).
Herpes isn’t deadly, and it usually doesn’t cause any serious complications
Even though the virus hangs around for life, it does not mean you will continuously get sores. Usually, the initial infection is the worst.
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