I'm HSV1 positive – How long until I'm not susceptible to getting more HSV1?

[Tadlington]

Hey there, In my last question to you, you assured me that, once you’ve got HSV1 you can’t/it’s super unlikely for you to get ‘more’ of it from someone else. So, if I had HSV1 orally and a woman had it genitally, after a certain period of time I wouldn’t get it genitally from her and she wouldn’t get it orally. And so my question here is: What is that period of time? After all, within the first weeks of getting it, I could, if not careful, transfer it to my eye by touching a sore and rubbing it there so I am imagining this goes for someone else’s sores. So how long does one have to wait to feel confident that I won’t reinfect myself or be reinfected by others? And is this based on antibodies being developed? I read somewhere that the first 6-12 months are the most infectious times and i’m assuming that’s due to the body still developing antibodies and so maybe this plays into it? I hope that make sense.

[Terri Warren]

I think waiting 4 months is enough to stop worrying about autoinoculation. It is based both on antibody being developed and other aspects of the immune system kicking in and offering protection. Yes, a person is most infectious in the first 6 months of being infected and that is because the immune system is really gearing up and getting familiar with it’s new challenge. But I think 4 months is adequate for not worrying about infecting yourself in a new location AND giving this a new person who already has herpes (which I wouldn’t worry about anyway)

Terri

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