Herpes Virus

By Stella Felice

Herpes is a sexually transmitted disease.

The virus enters your body, from
someone who is already infected with the
virus, through an open wound or through
a persons mouth. Once it's in your
system the virus works by sticking its
glycoproteins, which surround the cell,
onto any one of your good cells, and
injects its RNA, (the cells DNA), into
your good cell. Your cell then reads the
viruses RNA and copies many herpes
cells inside your good cell. Eventually
the cell containing all the copied herpes
will burst and the virus cell will stick on
to other cells and continue spreading.
Before you know it, you are sick with the
herpes virus.
As a result, small blister type bumps will
appear on your skin. They usually sit on
the surface of your skin for 5- 10 days.
Clear liquid fills the bump and eventually
pops. That

is your body trying to get rid of the

virus. You can get HSV1- oral herpes,
or HSV2- genital herpes. They often
occur, go away, then come back again.
The reasoning behind that is the herpes
lie dormant, or stagnant in the nerve
cell and the virus will reactivate from
illness, stress or temperature.
That is the physical trait of the herpes
virus. But of course everything starts
from the way the virus reacts with your
bodys cells. Inside the herpes cell, there
is a double stranded RNA, (viruses
genetic
information).
That,
is
surrounded by an icosahedral protein
cage called capsid. The capsid is
wrapped in a lipid bilayer (fat layer).
The capsid and lipid layers are called the
envelope. Herpes can be fairly
harmless, but once you are infected with
herpes, it is in your system forever. You
can avoid break outs, but the virus cells
will always remain in your body.

Right:
Actual
microsc
ope
picture
of
herpes
virus.
Left:
Diagra
m of
herpes
cell
structur
e virus