How HSV causes blisters and sores?
Once the HSV-1 or HSV-2 viruses enter a human cell, it penetrates the nucleus of the cell and starts the process of replication. At the stage of replication, a person will not experience any symptom even though the cells of the body are suffering from the infection. During the initial stages of the infection, the virus transports through nerve cells to ganglia which are the nerve-branching points. It is here at the ganglia that the virus will stay in a dormant and inactive state neither causing any symptoms nor replicating anymore. The dormant virus might reactivate suddenly on occasion and starts a new replication process. On the initiation of the new replication process, the virus travels back to the surface of the skin through the nerve. The moving of virus back to the nerve causes death of many of the infected skin cells causing sores to form. The eruption of these sores lead to the characteristic ulcers that are commonly known as genital herpes or cold sores.