Emergence of romantic kissing 5,000 years ago led to spread of cold-sore virus: study

A new study has indicated that the advent of kissing around 5,000 years ago may have led to the spread of the cold-sore virus, which now affects almost 4 billion people across the world.

The researchers from the University of Cambridge and UCL screened dental DNA from 3,000 archaeological finds for the study. It said that facial herpes may have spread through smooching in the Neolithic age. The earliest records of the practice have been found in the Bronze Age religious Indian texts "The Vedas."

A report in The Telegraph mentions that the practice spread to the West after Alexander the Great took over Punjab in 326BC. The study says that the spread of the virus coincided with the spread of kissing.

"Every primate species has a form of herpes, so we assume it has been with us since our own species left Africa," said co-author of the study, Dr. Christiana Scheib, who is also a research fellow at St John's College, University of Cambridge.

"However, something happened around five thousand years ago that allowed one strain of herpes to overtake all others, possibly an increase in transmissions, which could have been linked to kissing, "he added.

The spread of the HSV-1 virus strain which causes facial herpes was an outcome of the migration into Europe from Eurasian steppes in the Bronze Age, it said.

The researchers managed to find herpes in the remains of four individuals. The oldest sample came from the 1500-year-old remains of a male excavated in Russia's Ural Mountain region.

Two others were excavated from Cambridge, UK. One was a female dating from the 6th–7th centuries CE, while the other was a young male from the late 14th century. The final sample came from a young adult male excavated in Holland.

"By comparing ancient DNA with herpes samples from the 20th century, we were able to analyse the differences and estimate a mutation rate, and consequently a timeline for virus evolution, said co-lead author Dr Lucy van Dorp, from the UCL Genetics Institute.

The report adds that the Roman Emperor Tiberius had even tried to ban kissing at official functions, likely to prevent the virus from spreading. According to the World Health Organistaion, two-thirds of the world population under 50 now carries the HSV-1 virus. It is mainly transmitted through oral contact.