Cold sores can be transmitted to children through close contact.

Byline: Ask Alan

QCan children get cold sores?

A Yes, but there are two 'brands' of the same virus, which is Herpes simplex. The first type usually causes cold sores, typically around the lips or nose area, and the second usually causes genital herpes, but both can attack any area of the skin or mucous tissue. The virus can only be transmitted by close contact such as kissing, but it's misleading to say that one virus type is always associated with sexual transmission: that is just another way to catch it. Most people get antibodies to the type causing cold sores by the age of five but don't show any symptoms of infection until after puberty. What tends to happen in adults is that some weakening of the immune system, such as attack by a cold virus or when someone is particularly run down, will trigger the classic symptoms of a cold sore as the herpes virus - which has stayed dormant all that time - becomes active. Anti-viral cream is very effective.

QCan children still get polio?

A They can and in some parts of the world still do. A worldwide campaign has dropped the list of countries it still resides in to seven, although false perceptions about immunisation might have caused some governments to hesitate, which is a tragedy. Children have been immunised in this country since 1956. There have been fewer than 50 cases here in the past 20 years, but as long as the virus is circulating somewhere in the world the most dangerous assumption is that we should stop. It still is a nasty disease and once it causes damage there still is no cure. Without immunisation, the virus gets in through the mouth, multiplies in the gut and gets into the bloodstream, then targets nerves which control muscle movement. Paralysis results, usually to the legs but it can be more widespread and prove fatal.

Alan Taman is Press & Communications Officer at Birmingham Children's Hospital. Send your child health questions to Ask Alan, Features Editorial, Bpm Media (Midlands), Floor 6, Fort Dunlop, Fort Parkway, Birmingham, B24 9FF To donate to the hospital's Red Balloon Appeal call 0121 333 8525.