- Most people with oral herpes get it during childhood or young adulthood from non-sexual contact with saliva, and the virus lives dormant in the nerve endings around the mouth or lips.
- It is possible for both types of herpes to infect any area of intimate contact. For example, you can get HSV-1 on your genitals if someone with a cold sore on their lip gives you oral sex, and you can get HSV-2 in your mouth if you give oral sex to someone with HSV-2 on their genitals.
- Both HSV-1 and HSV-2 can cause sores on and around the genitals, buttocks, inner thighs, lips, mouth, throat and rarely, your eyes.
- Herpes is spread from skin-to-skin contact with these infected areas, often during vaginal sex, oral sex, anal sex and kissing.
- Although herpes is most contagious when sores are visible, herpes can be transmitted from someone who does not have any visible sores and/or is unaware of their infection.
- Herpes sores usually appear as one or more itchy and/or painful blisters on or around the genitals, rectum or mouth. An “outbreak” can take a week or more to heal.
- Flu-like symptoms (e.g., fever body aches, or swollen glands) also may sometimes occur during the first outbreak.
- Herpes can have repeated outbreaks, however, these are usually shorter and less severe than the first outbreak. Although herpes is a lifelong infection, the number of outbreaks may decrease over time.
- Treatment of an outbreak is accomplished through medication prescribed by your provider. Sometimes people with frequent outbreaks can take prescribed medication at the first signs and symptoms to decrease the outbreak.
- Herpes 1 and 2 are both diagnosed by a clinical exam. Providers take a sample from the sore(s) and culture it. Results typically take 4-7 days. Treatment is often started without test results when the diagnosis is presumed by your provider.
- The blood test for HSV antibodies is not routinely used for diagnosis as it does not diagnose a current infection and often causes more confusion than anything else.
- Herpes may live in your body for years without causing any symptoms so it’s hard to know for sure when and how you got it.
- Because the virus dies quickly outside of the body, you can’t get herpes from hugging, holding hands, coughing, sneezing or sitting on toilet seats.
