I get cold sores from time to time. I'm not sure if they are HSV 1 or 2. I don't have access to the kind of blood testing that would identify the strain. Anyway, I have a question about autoinoculation and herpetic whitlow. I've been getting cold sores for a number of years now, so the infection is not new. With that being said, I was applying some over-the-counter cold sore medication to a sore that I had just acquired. I had cut my finger on the fingertip earlier that day. It's not a really deep cut, but it is definitely noticeable (if that makes any sense). I applied the medication to the lesion with the fingertip that had the cut. I am wondering how likely it would be that I would transfer the virus to my finger given that this is not a primary outbreak. Also, is it only really necessary to worry about autoinoculation during a primary outbreak or first infection? How possible is it to transfer the virus to another part of the body after the first infection has long since passed? I also apologize as I essentially asked the same question 3 times.

Thanks

So it's been roughly 17 days since I may have potentially autoinoculated my finger that had a cut on it when I applied some medication to a cold sore that I had on my lip. I'm not that knowledgeable about herpes but I've read that the incubation period is 2-20 days which I take to mean that if I don't experience an outbreak of lesions on my finger by the 20th day then it would be fairly safe to assume that I haven't autoinoculated my finger. Would this be correct?