HSV-1 genital-to-genital transmission

[kissofdoom]

Hi Terri,

I’m male and I unfortunately infected my partner recently with genital HSV-1 through oral sex. Her infection was confirmed via swab test. I’d love to hear your opinion on a couple of questions:

1) As I already have oral HSV-1 since childhood, how likely am I to be infected genitally with the same strain?

2) What is the HSV-1 genital-to-genital transmission rate generally (female-to-male and male-to-female) with a person who does not have HSV-1 antibodies? Seems to be difficult to find good information on this.

3) The infection also spread to her right hand (the base of middle finger and the base of thumb). Can she use her hand normally when she does not have visible symptoms or does she need to be concerned about asymptotic shedding when touching her or someone else’s face, shaking hands, touching babies etc?

Really appreciate your answers, thanks!

kissofdoom

[Terri Warren]

1) As I already have oral HSV-1 since childhood, how likely am I to be infected genitally with the same strain?

Extremely unikely

2) What is the HSV-1 genital-to-genital transmission rate generally (female-to-male and male-to-female) with a person who does not have HSV-1 antibodies? Seems to be difficult to find good information on this.

It’s difficult because we don’t have that data. But I can tell you that most professionals say genital to genital transmission of HSV 1 is extremely low. I personally have not diagnosed anyone with genital HSV 1 who has not received oral sex in the past 10-14 days.

3) The infection also spread to her right hand (the base of middle finger and the base of thumb). Can she use her hand normally when she does not have visible symptoms or does she need to be concerned about asymptotic shedding when touching her or someone else’s face, shaking hands, touching babies etc?

When she has no lesions on her finger (herpetic whitlow) she is not infectious from her hand. The skin of the hand is too thick for virus to be shed without symptoms.

Terri

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