Herpes

The herpes virus is one of the most prevalent viral diseases known to man. As much as eighty percent of all people, worldwide, have herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1), and twenty percent have herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV2). This may sound like scary statistics, but most infected people suffer only mild discomfort. The more common form, HSV1, usually causes the occasional blister-like sores on or around the mouth. These blisters are called cold sores or fever blisters and, as most sufferers know, they are annoying and mildly painful but rarely dangerous. If the sores are left alone, they will generally heal up in five to twenty days. The less common version, HSV2, has the same symptoms except that the sores are usually found on or around the genitals. However, either type can be found in other places on the body and, in rare cases, the virus can cause serious problems. Ocular herpes (an infection of the eye) can cause blindness, and herpes encephalitis (an infection of the brain) can cause brain damage or death. We have no cure for the herpes virus at this time; once you have the virus, you have it for life. After the virus invades a new host, it incubates for two to twenty days. Then blister-like sores start to form, and in the initial breakout there can be fever, muscle aches and a general feeling of illness.
What is a virus?
Viruses are the smallest infectious agents known; too small to be seen with a normal microscope, an electron microscope is necessary to be able to see a virus. According to Oates, J.K. in Herpes: the facts (1983) " ... an average bacteria is roughly 1,000 nanometers in diameter, while viruses range in size from 300 to as little as 10 nanometers." and that " ... a human red blood cell, ... is between 7 and 8 thousand nanometers ... " (p. 21). Viruses are nucleic acid, RNA or DNA, coated with a protective layer of protein called a capsid. Some viruses also have an outer bag of lipo-protein called an envelope. After a virus attaches to a