Are there small blisters on your lips and around your mouth? If your answer is in the affirmative, you are probably having cold sore. Follow along to get to know this disease as well as its treatments and how it can be prevented.
Cold sores, whose alternative name is fever blisters, are tiny blisters that grow in the lips and around the mouth. The skin part where blisters grow is usually swollen, red, and sore. After the blisters develop, they break open, release clear liquid, and begin to scab few days later. The disease begins to heal two days later and lasts after two weeks.
The main culprit that causes cold sores is herpes simplex virus which is of two types, namely HSV-1 and HSV-2. The two types are also the main cause for genital herpes.
The virus can get into the body when there is a break in the skin or inside the mouth. The fastest modes of transmissions are touching another persons cold sore and sharing utensils with, kissing and touching saliva of an infected person.
The first symptoms of cold sores include pain in the mouth or lips, fever, sore throat, and swollen glands at different parts of the body. Days after the blisters developed, they break open, release transparent liquid, scab after few days more, and disappear from the skin after the maximum period of two weeks.
cold sore blister are not difficult for the doctor to find out. The doctor will just ask few questions, after which, how the virus was acquired will be known already. Other than this, no diagnostic test shall be conducted.
Two weeks is the maximum time before the infected person gets healed. However, the disease brings with it uncomfortable symptoms which can be embarrassing and irritating. To eliminate these symptoms, an infected person can make use of treatments such as skin creams, ointments, and pills which can be bought at any drugstore. Taking these treatments can heal the disease two days faster than taking no treatment at all.
Despite the treatments for cold sores, the virus that causes it stays in the body forever. In other words, cold sores brought by herpes simplex virus cannot be completely healed. Treatments can only reduce the number of sores but cannot prevent the virus from developing more sores.
Because of this, preventive measures must be taken by those who are not yet infected. Avoiding coming in contact with infected persons and using his belongings are effective preventive measures against cold sores. Boosting immune system by taking nutritious diet is considered the best way to prevent cold sores because the virus can hardly wreak havoc to the body when there are enough agents inside that can fight it off.
