How do you get oral herpes?

Once you get oral herpes, the virus stays in you forever, but the symptoms (cold sores!) will likely go away completely or only come back once in a great while. There is no cure for oral herpes, but some over the counter creams like Abreva can help make the sores go away faster. read more

Incubation period: For oral herpes, the amount of time between contact with the virus and the appearance of symptoms, the incubation period, is 2-12 days. Most people average about 4 days. Duration of illness: Signs and symptoms will last 2-3 weeks. read more

Oral herpes is a common infection of the mouth area. It is caused by the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). Most people in the United States are infected with this virus by age 20. After the first infection, the virus goes to sleep (becomes dormant) in the nerve tissues in the face. read more

We test for Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) in the blood using the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test. read more