Hi,

I have a few questions regarding oral HSV1 and transmission to genitals:

1.       Do you ever see transmission of HSV1 through saliva alone?  For example, I recently used saliva only for masturbation on my partner.  Not long after I noticed I was getting a cold sore on my lip.  My hand did not touch my lip at any stage so it was only saliva involved.  Can something like this cause HSV1 genitally or is it mainly from skin to skin contact (ie mouth to genital)?  My partner has had coldsores since a child, but would there be any difference in risk if she hadn't?  

2.      What's the longest time you've seen it take someone to develop symptoms after possible exposure?  I've read on other posts Terri has never seen symptoms develop after 14 days?  My partner developed a very small rash and slight itching at day 19 after the situation I described in point 1 above.  The small amount of redness and slight itching went away after 4-5 days.  Would this be odd for symptoms to develop this long afterwards?    

3.      Obviously happy if you don't want to answer this one, but if what I described in point 1 and 2 above happened to you (ie the exposure I descirbed then some redness/itching at day 19 that lasted several days) would you be even slightly concerned for yourself (This is assuming you have a longstanding coldsore infection)?

4.      I've read from other posts that once you have a longstanding oral HSV1 infection it is extremely rare to get it somewhere else.  Does this mean if you had a HSV1 infection from a young age and you received oral sex from someone with an active coldsore your chances of getting it genitally are still extermely rare?  I would obviously not do this, I'm just trying to gauge how much immunity the oral infection gives someone.   

1.       Do you ever see transmission of HSV1 through saliva alone?  For example, I recently used saliva only for masturbation on my partner.  Not long after I noticed I was getting a cold sore on my lip.  My hand did not touch my lip at any stage so it was only saliva involved.  Can something like this cause HSV1 genitally or is it mainly from skin to skin contact (ie mouth to genital)?  My partner has had coldsores since a child, but would there be any difference in risk if she hadn't? 

It is so difficult to separate saliva from the lips but we don't believe that saliva is good carrier, by itself, of herpes.  The skin to skin contact is far more likely to cause infection.  If your partner had cold sores as a child, they are highly unlikely  to get a new HSV 1 infection genitally.

2.      What's the longest time you've seen it take someone to develop symptoms after possible exposure?  I've read on other posts Terri has never seen symptoms develop after 14 days?  My partner developed a very small rash and slight itching at day 19 after the situation I described in point 1 above.  The small amount of redness and slight itching went away after 4-5 days.  Would this be odd for symptoms to develop this long afterwards?   

If someone is going to develop symptoms from a new infection, the average time is 2-10 days, with the median being 5.5 days.  Some sites say 21 days, I personally think that's a stretch. 

3.      Obviously happy if you don't want to answer this one, but if what I described in point 1 and 2 above happened to you (ie the exposure I descirbed then some redness/itching at day 19 that lasted several days) would you be even slightly concerned for yourself (This is assuming you have a longstanding coldsore infection)?

I would not be concerned for myself that I acquired a new infection,  no.  Especially not if I had long standing HSV 1 infection orally.

4.      I've read from other posts that once you have a longstanding oral HSV1 infection it is extremely rare to get it somewhere else.  Does this mean if you had a HSV1 infection from a young age and you received oral sex from someone with an active coldsore your chances of getting it genitally are still extermely rare?  I would obviously not do this, I'm just trying to gauge how much immunity the oral infection gives someone.  

Yes, I would agree that this is a correct statement.  is it impossible to acquire HSV 1 at new location once you have a long standing infection say orally?  No, not impossible but very unlikely indeed, especially if  it was only saliva and your partner already had HSV 1 infection.

Terri