Blame for cold sores planted on Stone Age smoochers

THE advent of romantic kissing 5,000 years ago may have triggered the spread of the cold sore virus leading to 3.7billion people now being infected with herpes, researchers believe.

The sharp rise in facial herpes in Europe during the Neolithic era may have coincided with “the smooch”, a new practice imported from the east, a study by Cambridge University and University College London has suggested.

The earliest record of “setting mouth to mouth” comes from The Vedas, a set of Bronze Age religious texts originating in India. It is believed the custom moved west after Alexander the Great’s conquest of Punjab in 326 BC.

Now scientists have taken DNA from ancient skeletons to trace the origin of the cold sore virus and found that its rise coincides with the dawn of kissing.

Dr Christiana Scheib of St John’s College, Cambridge, said: “Every primate species has a form of herpes, so we assume it has been with us since our own species left Africa. However, something happened about 5,000 years ago that allowed one strain of herpes to overtake all others, possibly an increase in transmissions, which could have been linked to kissing.”

Anthropologists are divided on why it began, but chimps will kiss, often after conflict. Early humans may also have fed their young mouth to mouth, leading to it gaining a link with pleasure.

Two thirds of the global population under the age of 50 now carry the facial herpes virus, HSV-1, according to the World Health Organisation.

The research was published in the journal Science Advances.