What is a cold sore? – Last night, my 4 year old daughter asked me.
Researchers say, two-thirds of the United States population is infected with cold sores on and around the lip area.
If all of them ask at once, “what is a cold sore”, then you should be in a position to answer it in a full length without beating around the bush.
Hope you’ll really appreciate my efforts:
What is a Cold Sore? – General Approach:
By posing the question “what is a cold sore?”, the common man expects some information in his or her own native language without getting into the technical things.
In simple words, cold sores are nothing but fever blisters filled with puss like fluid. There may be different forms of cold sore but lesions are common in all of them.
What is a Cold Sore? – Scientific Approach:
Most often, people do not recognize cold sores and thus they never ask “what is a cold sore”. However, the same is not true with registered medical practitioners.
The doctors have acknowledged cold sores even in its dormant stage. As per them, a cold sore is an infection caused by Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1.
Cold sores differ from genital herpes as the latter is known to be caused by Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2. Just remember not to mix both of them together.
Scientifically, cold sore infection is termed as Herpes Labialis as it is more frequently observed at the lip and its surrounding areas. It can even spread to other areas and result in long-term damage making people feel ashamed and embarrassed.
The nasty thing about cold sores is its recurrence and contagious nature. As the infection is caused by the virus, there is a higher chance of being contagious from your own members of the family. It can spread to others by touch, kiss and other social contacts too.
Hope, now you are in a position to answer your’s daughter’s query – “what is a cold sore?”.
Everyone says cold sore is common. But what does a cold sore look and feel like? Does it have any symptoms? Of course, yes! Let us now deal with cold sore signs and symptoms in full-length.
To be frank, some people don’t have any symptoms but still, they are infected with Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1. That means the signs and symptoms are not uniform.
In medicine, a prodrome is an early symptom (or set of symptoms) that might indicate the start of a disease before specific symptoms occur.
Cold Sore Symptoms – What is a Cold Sore?:
However, in a majority of the cases, you can observe the following cold sore signs and symptoms in common:
1. In the early stages, some patients observe mild to severe pain around their mouth. It can even lead to redness, swelling, sore throat, pain in the neck and other parts of the body. This is mainly due to the formation of fluid-filled blisters.
2. The virus affects the sensitive parts like lips, mouth, and nose. As a result, the blisters appear and you will feel pain and it may lead to swollen glands, headache, muscle aches, pains, and fever.
3. Scientifically, the prodromal symptoms are very sensitive in cold sore sufferers. Here, the patients observe itching, tingling or burning sensation for a couple of days and then, later on, they transform into the fluid-filled blisters.
4. These small blisters might even spread to all over the face thus resulting in one larger blister.
5. None can tell exactly for how many days these blisters will remain on the body. Actually, the duration is based on many factors including severity of the virus, immunity of the cold sore sufferer etc. In most of the cases, blisters dry up in 10-14 days.
6. Let me tell you, only a few people observe a tear in the skin. It is something like a minute paper-cut that may or may not develop into a blister.
7. A cold sore doesn’t have any age limit to effect. It can catch your kid of fewer than 3 years too. This is mainly because of the contagious nature of herpes simplex virus.
8. In severe cases, you might even feel irritation in eyes.
Cold Sore Treatment:
As the cold sore is the result of an attack by herpes simplex virus, you may experience 2-3 cold sore outbreaks in the same year. Let’s arrest its growth from the root level.
It’s now time to treat cold sores without spreading herpes simplex virus. Who knows it can be as dangerous as the H1N1 virus!
Eradicate it from the world right now by visiting the exclusive resource – COLD SORE TREATMENT and cure cold sores forever that too naturally.
