Kissed a girl who had a cold sore on her mouth a week before.

[jay2014]

Dear Dr. Warren,

I kissed this girl after her cold sore was healed and gone, but I noticed few red spots on her mouth after our kissing. what are the chances of me getting oral herpes from her? It’s been four days since I kissed her, should I be expecting any cold sores?

[Terri Warren]

It’s difficult to give you an estimate of the exact risk here. Red spots alone could be many things. Also, even when cold sores are not present, people with oral herpes can give off virus and infect someone else, so symptoms aren’t the only time when you can become infected. Generally, if you don’t have any symptoms by 10 days after the encounter, you may not develop any symptoms related to this encounter.

Have you actually been tested to see if you yourself might be infected with HSV 1? You need an IgG antibody test to make this determination.

Terri

[Author]

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