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I am a female and about 6 years ago I was infected with HSV1 on my butt, which I assume I got through oral sex. I am currently having my first outbreak in recent memory. I believe I might of had one about 6 weeks ago, as well. I went to my OBGYN and had it confirmed this time through a culture that I was having an outbreak. My biggest concern is that I have a 2 month old and a 3 year old and I don’t want to pass it on to them. So here are my questions.
1. After using the bathroom and wiping myself how long should I wash my hands to make sure no virus remains. Is there a special soap I should be using?
2. Also, I am breastfeeding and I am very concerned that I can infect myself in another area such as my nipples or mouth. Is this possible?
3. Does my 2 month old have immunities from me to prevent her from being infected? If for some reason she does become infected is it serious at this age as it would be to a newborn?
4. For the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy I was on Valtrex and I stopped taking it after I gave birth. Could stop taking the medicine have caused an outbreak? I am curious as to why I am having an outbreak now, when I have went so long without one.
Thank you for your help! -
If you simply wash your hands after using the bathroom for a reasonable amount of time – 30 second with soap and water is probably fine- then transmission to your children is not a risk. You can use an antibacterial soap like Dial if you wish but really any soap is good I think.
You have well established herpes, and that being the case, new infection at a new location on your body is extremely unlikely so breastfeeding is not an issue if your nipples has not been infected in the past. Have you ever had a cold sore?
Your two month old likely does still have some immunity that you passed to her during pregnancy. It would be somewhat safer for her to get your herpes at this point than as a newborn, but again, that’s not going to happen from you having genital infection.
Stopping the medicine sometimes does result an in outbreak right afterward for people. Also, the pregnancy compromised your immune system to some degree and it may be taking it a while to rebound.
If these outbreaks continue, you could talk to your doctor about going back on suppression for a bit.Terri
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I believe that acyclovir is safe during breastfeeding, but this is something you should run by your doctor. We haven’t used the topical medicine in more than 20 years in our clinic.
Hand sanitizer is effective, yes. If someone has a cold sore, they could transmit virus by kissing someone else on the mouth. The virus lives outside the body a very short time and remember that a certain volume of virus is necessary to transmit, not just a tiny tiny bit.
It is OK to sleep with your child if you have an outbreak if you are wearing clothes, yes.
There is most certainly a chance the outbreaks could show up on the genitals. The virus would simply have traveled on a different branch of the sacral nerve group to get to the surface of the skin. This does NOT represent a new infection at all.Terri
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I don’t look at pictures on this forum, even if they are not posted on the forum, sorry, that is too close to practicing medicine over the internet for me. If you have a lesion on your nipple, I would strongly suggest that you make an appointment with your clinician today to have it evaluated and swab tested if appropriate. I have seen herpes lesions on nipples before, likely the result of some rough nipple sucking during sex from someone with cold sores. But as often as that behavior happens, I have not seen much of that. Maybe 4 cases is 33 years?
I’m not absolutely sure about this, but I think at 5 months,the baby would be able to withstand a herpes infection, but again this is something you need to discuss with your pediatrician’s office folks.
Terri
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