[Paleo Conservative]

In fact, centuries later, the Roman Emperor Tiberius tried to ban kissing at official functions to prevent disease spread, a decree that may have been herpes-related. However, for most of human prehistory, HSV-1 transmission would have been “vertical”: the same strain passing from infected mother to newborn child.

Two-thirds of the global population under the age of 50 now carry HSV-1, according to the World Health Organisation. For most of us, the occasional lip sores that result are embarrassing and uncomfortable, but in combination with other ailments – sepsis or even COVID-19, for example – the virus can be fatal. In 2018, two women died of HSV-1 infection in the UK following Caesarean births.

My mother had cold sores. I never caught them from her. I also never caught them anywhere else.

[reformedliberal]

My mother had cold sores. I never caught them from her. I also never caught them anywhere else.
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Ditto.

[zigmeisterxiv]

Many people who do have the virus never have symptoms. They can still pass it to uninfected humans who will show symptoms.
The ultimate”plausible deniability” disease.