Risk of getting HSV1 from kissing

[seabee]

Hi,

1) I would really like to avoid getting oral herpes for reasons I won’t go into. If I kiss someone who has never had a coldsore, and (obviously) doesn’t have one at the time of the kiss, is my risk of getting HSV1 the same, if that person actually is positive?
In the same way that genital herpes can be transmitted commonly with no symptoms? I’m trying to determine whether I should ask people to get tested for herpes before kissing them.

2) If I were to contract the virus, what percentage of people get recurrent oral herpes (vs no symptoms or just one outbreak)?

Thank you very much!

[Terri Warren]

It is possible to acquire HSV 1 orally from kissing someone who is infected with HSV 1 orally but has no outbreak, yes. It isn’t likely, but it can happen.

We don’t have statistics on what percentage of people get recurrent oral herpes once they are infected, sorry about that. We do know that 70% of those who test positive for HSV 1 don’t report symptoms. However, they may just not be recognizing the symptoms as herpes.

Terri

[Author]

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