The herpes virus is one of the most widespread viral diseases known to humans. Up to eighty percent of the world's population has herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1) and twenty percent has herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV2). These statistics may seem frightening, but most infected people experience only mild discomfort. The most common form, HSV1, usually causes occasional blister-like sores on or around the mouth. These blisters are called cold sores or cold sores and, as most patients know, they are annoying and slightly painful but rarely dangerous. If the sores are left alone, they usually heal within five to twenty days. The less common version, HSV2, has the same symptoms, except that the sores are usually found on or around the genitals. However, either type can be found in other places in the body, and in rare cases the virus can cause serious problems. Ocular herpes (an infection of the eye) can cause blindness, and herpes encephalitis (an infection of the brain) can cause brain damage or death. We currently have no cure for the herpes virus; once you have the virus, you have it for life. Once the virus invades a new host, it incubates for two to twenty days. Blister-like sores then begin to form, and initially there may be fever, muscle pain, and a general feeling of illness. What is a virus? Viruses are the smallest known infectious agents; too small to be seen with a normal microscope, an electron microscope is needed to be able to see a virus. According to Oates, JK in Herpes: the materials (1983) "...an average bacterium is about 1,000 nanometers in diameter, while viruses range in size from only 300 to 10 nanometers." and that "... a human red blood cell, ... I...... in the middle of a paper ......ion then rubbing my eyes. This is what we call l self-inoculation, and it is possible to self-inoculate any part of the body where there is a cut or break in the skin. Langston continued with There are several forms of ocular herpes. The most common. is... viral infection, which is a cold sore in the eye or an ulcer on the surface of the cornea... Other forms include... sterile ulcers that are slow to heal due. mechanical damage caused by the previous viral infection,… allergic or immune haze deeper in the cornea due to a reaction to viral proteins left behind after the infection is gone, and… iritis or inflammation of the blue or brown part of the eye behind the cornea The immune form of corneal disease causes the largest scar (paragraph 5). almost never causes blindness.