My opinion is just that - an opinion.  There is not 100% agreement about what people should do about this question.  

And my thoughts are not the same about disclosing oral HSV 1 infection vs. genital HSV 1 infection and they are not the same when someone has new HSV 1 genitally vs. established HSV 1 genital infection.

I advise people with oral HSV 1 to disclose that they have the cold sore virus prior to giving oral sex to someone because if they are shedding virus and the person receiving the oral sex is uninfected, this can turn into a sexually transmitted infection.  And YES, I've been involved in several legal cases now pertaining to this situation.

People with new genital HSV 1 shed virus on about 13% of days, that's a pretty high number and if there are transmission via intercourse, I would say they are most likely people with new genital HSV 1.  But once someone has been infected for two years, they only shed on about 4 days out of an entire year, so that's very little, right?

I also think that it's different when people are having casual sexual partners versus having sex with someone with whom there could be a future serious relationship. And sometimes, it's hard to know where things might progress. The problem is that if this is not disclosed, and the relationship progresses to something more serious, then the issue is not so much transmission but trust. What else have you not told me? Can I trust what you have to say? Granted, HSV one genital infection is very different than HSV two genital infection. And sometimes people get scared when they just hear the word herpes. So I do understand the reluctance to disclose, but I'm not sure it's the best strategy. I'm sure other people have a variety of opinions about this. This is just my opinion.

Terri Warren

Thanks for your input and I would still like to hear Dr. Handsfield side if possible. I know you said you would feel different if it is casual sex. Do you think disclosing GHSV 1 is necessary if the sex is just casual and never leads to any real relationship?

I'm having trouble pulling up question 6153, but from my look the other day (from another computer), my recollection is that the questioner did not have newly acquired herpes, but only a positive blood test for HSV1. If so, I would stand by my advice that there would usually be no need to disclose their herpes infection -- as I believe would Terri as well. But your situation apparently is newly acquired genital HSV1, right? (With a positive genital swab test at your age, you probably were infected recently.) Therefore, the chance you would transmit the virus sexually probably is a lot higher now than it will be in the future. For now, I believe you should inform even casual partners of your infection for the next year or two; and also be alert to recurrent outbreaks, avoiding sex if and when that happens. (It may never happen:  as I recall the research, 30-40% of people with newly acquired genital HSV1 never have a second outbreak.) Very different for HSV2, for which most people have recurrences 4-8 times a year. But with HSV1, after a year or two your risk of transmitting sexually (in the absence of a visible outbreak) probably will be near zero for any single exposure.

I have been involved with legal cases recently that involve HSV 1 and non-disclosure of that infection.  However, the infections have been oral with HSV 1 not genital but I'm not positive that matters in legal terms.

While its true that half your partners will already be infected, most people don't know their HSV 1 status so that complicates things a bit.

Terri