The virus replicates in cells at the site of infection and is transported to sensory neurons that inervate the site.
Some neurons support productive infection and are destroyed.
Others retain the virus DNA in a latent state, generally throughout the lifetime of the host. Periodic reactivation of the latent viral genome results in virus replication often causing recurrent disease. During acute infection, gene expression is coordinately regulated and sequentially ordered in a cascade fashion. To accomplish this, the virus brings into the newly infected cells proteins that, as mentioned above, are packaged into the tegument and function to create the environment required for initiation of viral replication. They were initially defined as those genes which are expressed in the absence of other viral protein synthesis.