Explore the recorded discovery and history of Herpes simplex viruses, with source links and stated limits.
WHO describes herpes simplex virus as a common infection spread mainly by skin-to-skin contact, treatable but not curable. HSV-1 mostly spreads by oral contact and causes infections in or around the mouth, and can also cause genital herpes; HSV-2 spreads by sexual contact and causes genital herpes. Most people have no symptoms or only mild ones.
A 2014 study in Molecular Biology and Evolution applied a selection-informed model of molecular evolution and favoured a scenario in which HSV-1 results from ancient codivergence with human ancestors while HSV-2 arose from a cross-species transmission event from the ancestor of modern chimpanzees to an extinct Homo precursor around 1.6 million years ago. This is a model-based inference about deep evolutionary history, not a record of any human case.
No first human case can be identified for either herpes simplex virus. The bundled evolutionary study addresses divergence times over hundreds of thousands to millions of years and does not describe a first patient, and the clinical sources do not carry a discovery milestone.
Source check: 2026-09-19. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.