HSV-1 Transmission Question

[GreenS]

Background: I am a 35 Year old female, married with one child. I’ve never had a cold sore but my mom has had them when I was growing up.

Scenario: My friend has large and frequent cold sores. I was visiting her for coffee and when she was making the coffees she licked and sucked the spoon she was using and then used the spoon to scoop the milk froth on top of my coffee (did not stir). She had a healing cold sore (scab had fallen off). I was worried but too polite to say anything, so waited 5 minutes before drinking my coffee trying to avoid the froth.

The next day I woke up with a sore throat, slight sniffles and light headedness (but I also had a cold/allergies last week). My top lip felt funny but it could have been in my imagination due to being paranoid or just dry. I got Zovirax and put it on just in case.

1) I am quite worried, how possible is it that I have caught HSV-1 from this scenario?

2) I have noticed in other questions you believe that adult transmission is very rare unless skin to skin (kissing) but when I have been looking it up many medical websites say you can easily catch HSV-1 through sharing drinks and cutlery, why is this?

[GreenS]

As a follow up to my questions above, given I have never had a cold sore and grew up with a mother who did, do you think at 35 years old and having already been through periods of illness or stress that I am unlikely to ever get a cold sore and is the scenario above likely to change that?

[Terri Warren]

Someone else on here asked a similar question today but with soup instead of coffee. My answer is the same – a million to one chance that you would contract herpes in this way.
I don’t know why medical websites say that honestly. There is just no evidence in the scientific literature to say that this is true and I’m totally a science based clinician. Perhaps it is because people go into their providers and say “I ate hot soup that my friend made who gets cold sores and now I have one”. Of course, we can’t extrapolate that because someone who has cold sores did something and now you have one, you got it from them. The only inanimate object that I worry about for transmission of oral herpes is sharing lipsticks. Lipsticks and lip gloss stay moist and if someone with active oral virus uses lipstick immediately before someone else, that is a possibility for transmission. That’s why cosmetic counters no longer allow testing with the actual lipstick and now use surrogates, like q tips. It is certainly possible that you have HSV 1 and have never had a cold sore – about 70% of those infected with HSV 1 don’t report cold sores.

Terri

[Terri Warren]

Someone else on here asked a similar question today but with soup instead of coffee. My answer is the same – a million to one chance that you would contract herpes in this way.
I don’t know why medical websites say that honestly. There is just no evidence in the scientific literature to say that this is true and I’m totally a science based clinician. Perhaps it is because people go into their providers and say “I ate hot soup that my friend made who gets cold sores and now I have one”. Of course, we can’t extrapolate that because someone who has cold sores did something and now you have one, you got it from them. The only inanimate object that I worry about for transmission of oral herpes is sharing lipsticks. Lipsticks and lip gloss stay moist and if someone with active oral virus uses lipstick immediately before someone else, that is a possibility for transmission. That’s why cosmetic counters no longer allow testing with the actual lipstick and now use surrogates, like q tips. It is certainly possible that you have HSV 1 and have never had a cold sore – about 70% of those infected with HSV 1 don’t report cold sores.

Terri

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