What about a virus like Herpes which enters a nerve cell? My understanding is that nerve cells have extremely long lifespans so inducing apoptosis in them has the potential to destroy physical sensation no?
I think you have that wrong. The virus travels up the nerve into the cell body. It stays there until the nerve (or you) dies. There it hijacks the cell's DNA machinery to create more virus. These new viruses travel back down the axion to be released in the blister. A cold sore on your lip is just the herpes virus shedding new viruses. Once infected, the body develops antibody to that type of the virus so infection doesn't spread but by then it's too late. Usually the site also becomes asymptomatic over time as well, however the virus will chill out in that nerve reproducing itself forever.
