Ok, maybe not the best news EVER. But I suffer from these horrid little creatures and have painful bouts several times a year that last about 10 days every time. Even highly touted creams like Abreva have done nothing for me.
A report out this week in the British journal NATURE states that researchers based at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina "...uncovered a stealth mechanism that enables the virus to hide away in facial nerves before it is revived by a trigger such as excessive sunlight or fever. The virus, known by its initials as HSV1, can hole up for years, out of reach of any drug, before being roused from dormancy. When it revives, it prompts a sore to return to the same location on the mouth as before."
SOURCE http://health.yahoo.com/news/afp/healthherpes_080702182605.html
Now that researchers have found the mechanism that allows cold sores to disappear and return whenever they please due to this period of dormancy, they believe it's possible to wake the virus and essentially kill it.
Bryan Cullen, a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke lead the investigation and in a press conference, said that ""...in principle, you could activate and then kill all of the virus in a patient. This would completely cure a person, and you would never get another cold sore." http://health.yahoo.com/news/afp/healthherpes_080702182605.html
A new drug for this cure is currently being tested.
It is also believed that these new findings may also help with treatment or cure for herpes 2, shingles and chicken pox.