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Hello Terry,
I’ve had cold sores in the past having maybe 1-2 a year. I have a question on transmission and possibly being infected with a different strand of HSV. Recently I was receiving treatment for facial hair, both laser and electrolysis. During my last visit I couldn’t recall if I noted my therapist wash or sanitize her hands or the equipment. And during our appt her daughter brought the phone to her which she touched without sanitizing. I realize now I should have said something then but I really do try and fight my OCD like tendencies. About 4 days after that appt I developed a cold sore and then immediately developed another one a week after the first. This for me is extremely uncommon. Part of me believes it may have been the stress I was feeling as a result of my thoughts and OCD with regards to concerns about cleanliness.
My questions:
– Is it possible to contract HSV from the hair removal laser (lets say it had touched someone in an area where they were having an outbreak prior to my treatment)?
– Is it possible to contract HSV from the therapist hands if she didn’t properly sanitize and then touched my lip?
With regards to testing, I’ve considered having the WB completed to get a better understanding of my actual status, do you recommend this test or is something like the Immunblot HerpesSelect test a reputable test? Is it better than the HSV 1 and 2-Specific Ab, IgG?
Thank you
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It is very very common to develop a cold sore after laser treatment of the face. most dermatologists ask about a history of cold sores prior to this procedure and prescribe suppression prior to the treatment for five days. The laser triggers outbreaks, for sure. If you have had cold sores in the past, you know you are infected with HSV 1, do you want to know about HSV 2?
Terri -
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– You mentioned that its very common for laser to cause outbreaks, so its not possible that I could have been effected from either the laser wand or the therapist hands?
No, I don’t believe you were infected from the laser or the therapist– Is it true that the virus only lives outside the body for less than a minute?
No, it can live longer than that but is rarely infectious after a few minutes.– If one is shedding (w/o visible sore) and kisses another person’s arm, shoulder, hands, neck etc could they pass the virus to them that way?
No the skin on the places you name is too thick for transmission to occur, assuming intact skin in those locations.
– What about kissing the cheeks?
Same as above– Are there multiple strands of the HSV 1 and 2 viruses?
Yes but it appears that once a person has one strain they rarely get another.
– If two people are both diagnosed with HSV 1 (or 2) could they in essence pass it back and forth to each other?
No, each persons’ immune system handles the virus in their own way.
– For example is one is having an OB could they cause the other to as well?
no
– How common is autoinacultation? I find myself concerned about infecting other parts of my body by accident.
It only happens during first infection, before an immune response has been mounted.
– I’ve noticed white bumps on my lips where I’ve had an outbreak in the past, is the related or familiar? They’ve been there well over 7 months.
Herpes would not be there for seven months. I think the bumps are likely normal
Terri
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Sorry about that!
I don’t recommend the immunoblot, no. It does not give an index value like the Herpeselect. The index value allows us to sort out any low positives that may be false positives. the immunoblot test is a color change strip and though we used it years ago as our test of choice, we stopped using it completely when the herpeselect ELISA version became available that allowed us to look more carefully at that low positive population. I shudder to think we may have told people who had a slight color change in the HSV 2 region of the test strip that they had herpes and did not, simply because the test did not allow such a distinction. If you do the herpeselect and it is a low positive, then we can think about the need for a western blot.Hope that helps! Do let me know if I’ve missed anything else
Terri
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