the topical formulation is applied to the infected area every 2 hours while awake the composition of the present invention has a synergistic additive effect that constitutes results unexpected in the art the three compounds act synergistically to reduce the duration of the cold sore by a clinically significant amount of time if the composition of the present invention is applied as directed when the prodromal symptoms appear and before the vesicles of the lesions erupt the result expected is only slight redness and no eruption of the vesicles therefore the composition of the present invention may prevent the outbreak from continuing or the viral cycle from continuing at the point of contact for immediate healing the composition of the present invention has the potential to completely prevent an outbreak of a cold sore caused by hsv 1 or hsv 2 and substantially reduce or eliminate associated pain this result is unexpected in the art because all known treatments for cold sores resulting from hsv 1 or hsv 2 have no known curative effects and only have been shown to slightly reduce the duration of and the pain caused by a lesion even if the composition of the present invention would be applied after vesicles have appeared and erupted the composition of the present invention is expected to greatly reduce the healing time such that in most circumstances the full blown cold sore would be reduced to only redness by the third day of application when compared to the average duration of a cold sore of 4 5 days of the known compounds in the prior art only 0 5 days less that no treatment at all the composition of the present invention 39 s expected healing time is an unexpected result of.