HSV-1 and Antiviral Medication

[littlepoet]

I have a 27-year old male partner who tested positive for HSV-1. The test was HSV Type 1-specific AB, IGG from Labcorp and his index was 19.20. He said he’s never had oral or genital outbreaks; he’s only had canker sores from eating too much sugar and it goes away after about a couple days. He’s open to taking daily antiviral medication to reduce the risk of infecting me as I’m a 29-year old female who is negative for HSV-1.

How effective are antivirals in reducing oral to oral and oral to genital transmission for HSV-1?

[Terri Warren]

So to start with, we know that the IgG test for HSV 1 misses 30% of infections compared to the gold standard western blot, so your test result may or may not be accurate. Assuming that it is, him taking daily antiviral medication would be useful for reducing transmission but we don’t have any data on how useful it is. We can’t know if his infection is oral or genital so we really don’t know. HSV 1 genital infection is rarely active and if he is it orally without symptoms, he is more likely to shed virus from that location. It’s a complicated situation but daily antiviral medication will be helpful, wherever it is, at least to some degree.

Terri

[littlepoet]

Okay, thank you for the information!

My partner did reach out to me and potentially saw a blister on his lip, but I’m uncertain if it’s herpes.

He noticed it this Monday, but believes it maybe started on Sunday.

No burning/tingling/itching/pain. He described it as a small, barely noticeable, bump that has a little water in it. The blister was located in the center of his lower lip, right where he would normally get a cut when his lips are dry.

He said today, Wednesday, it was a tiny cut all along that was hidden under top layer of dry lips/skin. He thinks it may have had saliva or something else trapped between the dry skin and the cut, and the night before the dry top layer split when he laughed and revealed the small, hidden cut.

He had a similar thing happen 2 years ago, but it healed in a couple of days. He said the previous situation looked like a cut that got infected instead of healed.

The pictures he has aren’t able to show it because it was so mild. Could this be a symptom of an oral herpes outbreak?

[Terri Warren]

It certainly could be, yes.

Terri

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