Herpes simplex has a long and colourful history, given that it has been around for at least 2000 years.
We’ve dived into some of the fascinating facts about cold sores past, and how people used to cope with them:
Ancient History:
As early as 30AD, Emperor Tiberius from Rome is said to have banned kissing in Rome, due to so many people having cold sores. It has even been mentioned in plays such as Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
Yet herpes was not declared a virus until the 1940s and wasn’t always stigmatised as ruthlessly as it is today.
In the early 1960s the original use for Herpes antiviral therapy was against normally fatal or debilitating illnesses. But the usage soon expanded to include topical treatment of herpes simplex, such as treating cold sore outbreaks on lips.
The Story of Today:
Nowadays people with the herpes virus are often hesitant to tell other people that they are infected, including friends and family. This is especially true of new or potential partners and for these reasons often feel like they need to stay within their own communities, such as dating sites specifically for them.
Trials combined different antivirals with differing results and thankfully eventually led to considerably less toxic treatment substances being introduced around the 1970s.
The Revolution:
It was only as of 2006, when lipivir® was invented by Swiss company Devirex, that herpes prevention was discovered and demonstrated.
Rather than simply treating the herpes virus when symptoms have already appeared, the transparent gel made up of polyethylene glycols can be used to stop cold sores before they’ve even started to form.
Make herpes history today with lipivir®!