Herpes has existed for thousands of years. Old texts discovered by the ancient Greeks described herpes as being present as early as the 5th century, but it's only been more recently (the past 100 years or so) that it's been understood.
- The Herpes Simplex Virus was first formally recognized by Hippocrates (460 to 370 BCE), who wrote about the symptoms of herpes, particularly the lesions.
- The name herpes is taken from an old Greek term, herpein, which stands for "creeping or latent'" as in creeping across the skin. The Greeks referred to herpes as sores that would creep onto the skin. The Roman emperor, Tiberius, emperor (AD 14 to 37), believing the "creeping" to be the cause of herpes, banned kissing and outlawed the action as a means to end this unsightly creeping across the flesh. No one was to kiss at public gatherings, which "creeping" was first named herpes in 1906.
- Aulus Celsus, who wrote on health matters in approximately this same period, advised cauterizing herpes blisters with a red-hot iron. Ouch!
- Shakespeare also described herpes in one of his literary works. In scene IV of Romeo & Juliet, he refers to cold sores when he describes blisters "o'er ladies lips". At the same time, people of the era believed sweetmeats (confections) caused herpes. People also thought Queen Mab, a fairy, could spell a person and give them herpes.
- In the 18th century, the French categorized this creeping or latent atrocity as a disease associated with the work of prostitutes. The 1800s produced evidence that herpes was transmitted from person to person (French scientist Emile Vidal) and that herpes wasn't eczema or pemphigus, which also "creeps" but is not contagious.
- A book, The Genital Herpes, was published by French doctors (Charles-Paul Diday and Adrien Doyon) in 1886.
- In 1896, a German physician (Paul Unna) determined how to identify herpes under a microscope, which was no trivial pursuit as herpes and syphilis were often present in a patient simultaneously.
- Moving into the 1900s, a German ophthalmologist, Wilhelm Grater, was able to transfer Herpes Simplex Complex from an infected person to the cornea of a rabbit and back again. This test, named The Grater Test, was used to diagnose herpes until the 1940s.
- In 1925, an American virologist, Ernest Goodpasture, proved herpes travels through nerve pathways, not blood.
- In the 1920s and 1930s, researchers discovered that herpes infects the central nervous system and the skin. Frank Burnet, an Australian microbiologist, determined herpes lived in the nerve ganglions when not outwardly present. In 1971, scientists Jack Stevens and Marjorie Cook proved this.
- A French scientist, Arnaud Tzanck, developed a different diagnosis for herpes to replace The Grater Test.
- And in 1978, the first anti-viral drug, Acyclovir, was developed by Gertrude Elion. It was tested in humans and determined as a safe and effective prescription medication. Acyclovir remains the standard medical treatment for HSV, although not without side effects.
If you want to go even further back in history, new research published in Virus Evolution states Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-2) jumped the species barrier between 1.4 and 3 million years ago from Paranthropus boisei, a flat-faced, thick-toothed hominid. Cold sores (HSV-1) date even further back.
NOTE: While I disagree with scientists saying we came from apes (I think we have more in common with sea creatures), I do acknowledge certain viruses have crossed the divide between animals and humans throughout history. Also, see Can Pets Contract Herpes Too?
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