What is a Cold Sore? Background Information, Studies, and Vaccine Info
What is a Cold Sore? Background Information, Studies, and Vaccine Info
By Andrew Kawaski
Basics of What Causes a Cold Sore
A cold sore is the external sign of an active herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, normally appearing on the lip or directly around the mouth–sometimes cold sores can appear on the nose as well. The specific pathogen that causes this is normally the HSV-1 strain, although HSV-2 (aka “type 2 herpes”) can also cause oral infections, although it’s more commonly associated with genital herpes–both HSV-1 and HSV-2 are equally capable of infecting either areas of the body. The old axiom of “If it’s below the waist it’s HSV-2, if it’s above the waist it’s HSV-13 no longer holds true all of the time, although it’s still accurate in the majority of cases.
The herpes simplex virus spends the majority of the time hibernating inside the sensory nerve cells near the initial site of infection (normally the face, in this case) in what’s called the remission period–the virus remains dormant. Studies have shown that outbreaks almost always correlate to a temporary drop in the immune system’s defenses such as sudden cold weather (hence the name “cold sore”), excessive UV exposure (sunlight), other illnesses such as the flu and colds, and the biggest cause of cold sore outbreaks by far: stress. This is the reason that one of the first things you should do as soon as you feel the oncoming tingling of a cold sore is to start (or increase, if you’re already on it) taking Vitamin C in large doses (you can’t really OD on Vitamin C per se).
Frequency of Occurance, And–Can I Ever Get Rid of It?
The herpes simplex virus cycles through active and dormant stages, the great majority of time being spent in the dormant stage. Active outbreaks typically last from 2 to 21 days, although the person can be infectious for as much as a week before and after the outbreak. People in their first year of infection will typically have a lot more outbreaks (higher frequency) than someone who has had HSV for a while–frequency of active periods (outbreaks) slowly decreases over time eventually to where a person will go years in between outbreaks.
There is no known cure for HSV, and once you’ve got it, it stays with you for life. There are currently several vaccines in Phase III trials with the FDA that are likely to be released soon, although the main one, Herpevac, has only been shown to be effective 50-75% of the time and only in females (this is for a HSV-2 vaccine designed to prevent genital herpes–Source: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/stds/herpevac/).
Where Did My Herpes Infection Come From?
You most likely contracted oral herpes from when you were kissed on the lips by a relative who had an active outbreak when you were a child. This is the most common way in which the disease is transmitted. Many people think that it likely came from a sexual partner that they kissed, but this is the second most common form of transmission, so in all likelihood you’ve got grandma or aunt matilda to blame for your lifelong affliction of cold sores.
Also, when people ask what is a cold sore?, they often are confused as to whether or not they actually have a cold sore or something else, and it’s good to keep in mind that cold sores are often confused with canker sores, which are caused by bacteria and have nothing to do with HSV or cold sores–canker sores are always inside the mouth, whereas cold sores very rarely occur there (they are almost always outside the mouth) and when they do it’s typically on the hard palate on the roof of the mouth or on the gums, whereas canker sores usually occur on the soft area inside the lips.
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