Cold sores pop up on someone’s face, and the first thing you think of is do they have herpes? Or if you are dating someone who gets a cold sore, you will naturally wonder if you are safe to kiss them or will you catch whatever they have? Well, it is contagious if they have a cold sore, and not just in one way but in several different ways. First, a cold sore is normally caused by the herpes simplex, which is a sexually transmitted disease that once you have you will never get rid of. Remember; even if a person who has herpes may not have a cold sore, they can still give you herpes.

The HSV-1 virus is spread through cold sores, and actually 80% of the people in the world do have this virus. That’s a lot of people. Most people actually will contract the HSV-1 virus by the age of five, which is an extremely young age. Once again, if you have this virus you will have it for the rest of your life. At times the virus will be dormant in your body, but it will still be in your body. Most times the virus is present by a person’s mouth; however it will spread throughout the body. Please always remember that you can still spread the virus even if you’re not having an outbreak at the present time. You should take precautions at all times. You should be honest with people who you are dating, letting them know that you have the virus and telling them if it is dormant or active. Don’t keep them out of the loop and possibly infect them too.

You will find that you don’t have to kiss someone with herpes or a cold sore to get the HSV-1 virus, but if you use a toothbrush that the other person has used. There are parts of that virus on lip balm or toothbrushes and you can easily get them just by using the product quickly, although the most ways that a person will get the herpes virus is by kissing someone who has a cold sore. Remember that a cold sore will have different phases that it will go through before it will go away. First will be the tingle stage; the cold sore will not show but the herpes virus is no longer dormant. This stage has a high risk of the virus being passed on; however the highest risk stage is at the weeping stage. Here is when the cold sore appears and will open up, expelling a liquid. Surprisingly the risk of passing the infection on is still high when at the crusting stage, or when there is a scab over the sore.

Also another interesting bit of information is that the virus may even be spread to different parts of a person’s body that may already have HSV-1. Also if you have a cold sore, make sure to wash your hands a lot. This will prevent the disease spreading to the fingers.