Short Answer:
After you are infected with HSV, the virus remains in your body for the rest of your life. Many people do not have symptoms and thus are unaware that they have the virus.
Long Answer:
One thing that distinguishes viruses in the herpes virus family from other types of viruses is something called latency. Herpes simplex and other herpes viruses have a way of creating a small but permanent colony of viral particles inside the body. This colony is often completely inactive “asleep” – but it persists for a lifetime.

Here’s how it works: once HSV gains a foothold, the virus begins making copies of its self and starts spreading. This can lead to a range of signs and symptoms, everything from subtle symptoms that go unrecognized to severe illness. In response, the immune system mobilizes its forces for an assault and limits HSV’s spread.

Whether there are severe symptoms or not, virus will persist in the body. To avoid the immune system, HSV will retreat along the nerve pathways, finding safe sanctuary in a nerve root called a “ganglion.” In cases of genital herpes, HSV retreats to the sacral ganglion, located at the base of the spine. In “oral” or facial herpes (cold sores), HSV finds its way to the trigeminal ganglion, at the top of the spine. In the ganglion, the virus remains inactive (“latent”) for an indefinite period of time.