Resolved question:
Dear doctor, I am a 24 years old male. I am staying with my girlfriend for about a year. I have had genital herpes previously, about a year ago and had its outbreaks then itself. Recently, my partner also got infected from me. She is now having her genital herpes outbreaks. Now, my issue is with the spread of this virus. My doubt is that is there any chance to spread the infection to un-affected areas by ourselves during any phase of infection, like virus shedding or so. I am not referring to an active outbreak but just shedding of the virus. I searched for this all over internet but couldn’t find an answer. Please help me with this. Thanks a million.
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4 Days
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It is really unfortunate to know that both of you got infected with genital herpes. Anyway, it is more unfortunate that you can spread the infection to unaffected parts of body also, while virus shedding. This can happen through oral sex in which genital herpes can infect mouth and facial parts and vice versa. That means, both of the types of herpes virus, I mean Herpes Simplex virus type 1,which cause cold sores or oral herpes (herpes labialis) and herpes simplex virus type 2, which cause genital herpes, can co exist in a body. This can even infect parts which are not naturally associated with herpes. However, your body will try hard to get rid of the virus by producing antibodies against the virus. This results in a prevention of spreading of this virus to other parts of body. But a total elimination of possibility is not practical. That means still there are chances of infection through viral shedding. However, it is seen that frequent sexual exposure to virus infected people will increase chances and severity of outbreak. So, it is better to reduce sexual activity till both of you get better in terms of genital herpes. To avoid more frequent outbreaks, you can take antiviral medication, as prescribed by your doctor. Medicines like acyclovir, Valtrex etc. help in suppressing the infection and prevent catching of them again. But it is not possible to avoid an outbreak forever and to eradicate the virus. This is similar to the recurring outbreaks of chicken pox after the first occurrence. Repeating occurrences will not be as severe as the first outbreak or not even felt as an outbreak itself. In the case of genital herpes, it is usually seen infected in genital areas only. The antibodies prepared in our body prevent an outbreak to happen again. If the virus infects some other places, it will be called by some different name. If herpes infects in oral parts, it will be called cold sores or medically, herpes labialis. If it infects finger, it is called Whitlow. Anyway, once infected, antibodies protect you from another outbreak in any other area. But in some people who have very feeble body defence mechanism, this theory fails. Recurrence or infecting other parts are triggered by some factors. Stress it one of the main factors which cause recurrence or change in location of infection. But youngsters do not give much attention to recurrences as it will be mild and even go unnoticed. Shedding of virus becomes prominent in the first year itself and mostly associated with the first outbreak itself. But the quantity of shedding will be insufficient to infect other parts of body if you keep good hygiene. To answer the most disheartening part, there are no home remedies for genital herpes found yet to give a complete cure. Hope you can understand. Take care.