What happens when herpes enters the body ?
One thing that distinguishes viruses in the herpes virus family from other types of viruses is something called latency. Herpes simplex and other herpes viruses have a way of creating a small but permanent colony of viral particles inside the body. This colony is often completely inactive “asleep” but it persists for a lifetime.
Here's how it works : once HSV gains a foothold, the virus begins making copies of itself and spreading. This can lead to a range of signs and symptoms, everything from subtle symptoms that go unrecognized to severe illness. In response, the immune system mobilizes its forces for an assault and limits HSV's spread.
Whether there are severe symptoms or not, virus will persist in the body. To avoid the immune system, HSV will retreat along the nerve pathways, finding safe sanctuary in a nerve root called a “ganglion.” In cases of genital herpes, HSV retreats to the sacral ganglion, located at the base of the spine. In “oral” or facial herpes (cold sores), HSV finds its way to the trigeminal ganglion, at the top of the spine. In the ganglion, the virus remains inactive (“latent”) for an indefinite period of time.
The phenomenon of latency is similar to a sleep cycle. In essence, the virus returns to a safe haven and sleeps, sometimes for long periods. Unfortunately, while HSV is latent, various biological events can cause it to become active and begin traveling the nerve pathways back to the skin. There it can cause signs and symptoms again, though it doesn't always do this.
How often the virus “wakes up” is a complicated question. It used to be thought that all of the HSV's “waking times” were marked by outbreaks an irregularity in the skin (defined as a “lesion”) such as a pimple, for example, or else some kind of symptom like an itch. Then researchers learned that the virus could wake and become active without causing noticeable signs or symptoms: no itch, no pain, no pimples, no blisters. This phenomenon has been called a number of things, including “asymptomatic shedding,” “asymptomatic reactivation,” and “sub clinical shedding.”
Asymptomatic shedding applies to the following situations :
- Some lesions are overlooked because they occur in places we simply never look or can't see
- Some are mistaken for something else an ingrown hair, for example
- Some can't be seen at all with the naked eye.
The point is that when herpes “wakes” and travels to the surface of the skin or mucous membranes, it is often subtle and hard to recognize, even for a health care provider, and sometimes impossible to spot. Also, even if you're a person with recurring signs and symptoms that you can usually recognize as herpes, there are almost certainly days when you won't be aware that the virus has reactivated and traveled to the skin or mucous membranes.
The above information thankfully comes from the ashastd.org at the following link.
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