Herpes 1 and herpes 2?!
Question: i was recently diagnosed with genital herpes. And that was by the strain hsv 1. I know that type 1 is generally cold sores. So does this mean that because there is no risk at transmitting a cold sore when it is not present on the lips, that applies to genital herpes? Can i pass on genital herpes when no blisters/ symptoms are present if i have tpe 1 herpes?
Answers: i was recently diagnosed with genital herpes. And that was by the strain hsv 1. I know that type 1 is generally cold sores. So does this mean that because there is no risk at transmitting a cold sore when it is not present on the lips, that applies to genital herpes? Can i pass on genital herpes when no blisters/ symptoms are present if i have tpe 1 herpes?
It isn't true that there is no risk of passing hsv-1 on when there is no cold sore present on the lips. Actually, hsv-1 on the mouth is the most infectious type of herpes - it is infectious about 18% of the time, including 10% of the time when no cold sore is actually present. That is why there are so many new cases of genital hsv-1 -they are normally caught through receiving oral sex from a partner that gets cold sores. Although my boyfriend gets cold sores, he hadn't had one in six months when he gave me genital herpes hsv-1.
As to genital herpes hsv-1, it is a lot less infecitous than either oral hsv-1 or genital hsv-2.
Genital hsv-1 is infectious about 3-4% of the time altogether. You can pass it on without symptoms, but this is more rare as it is infectious for a lower proportion of days. One study in which people with genital hsv-1 were swabbed daily showed that only 25% of people with genital hsv-1 shed the virus at all without symptoms being present.
One good thing about having hsv-1 rather than hsv-2 is that 8 out of 10 of the rest of the population is infected with hsv-1 on their mouths. Once you have had it for a while, you are highly unlikely to get a second infection by the same virus in another location. So if your partner has cold sores caused by hsv-1, or tests positive for hsv-1 on a blood test, then as long as you avoid contact during outbreaks it is highly unlikely they are ever going to catch it from you genitally (and they cannot catch it from you orally so oral sex is safe). So much so that the Herpes Viruses Association gives the following advice:
"If you and your partner have the same virus you will not reinfect each other - even on a different part of the body. So, if you have caught it genitally from your partner