Hello,
I got tested (another clean bill of health thankfully) and I had a weird conversation with the nurse who treated me. The nurse who tested me has herpes and told me that you can keep it under control with medication, diet and really monitor yourself for breakouts triggers. She said her husband doesn't have herpes and they have been together for 6 years. I asked her about the viral shedding and how she can guard her husband from that. She told me that during the first year of infection that shedding is a real threat, then after that the risk is extremely low.
She seemed like an oddball, but I couldn't find anything in the forums to disprove her.
What's that deal?
Thanks
Kilroy was here.
Hi kilroy
People who have the Herpes simplex virus (HSV) can notice that certain things can seem to be associated with the onset of an outbreak (triggers), things that people have noticed as triggers are menstruation (period), sunlight, pregnancy, birth control pills, diet, friction, stress, illness and heat. Some people do not notice any type of association between triggers and their HSV outbreaks.
Many people find that they can reduce the amount of outbreaks they have by avoiding certain triggers.
Antiviral medication like Valtrex can be taken in a few different ways to reduce outbreaks as well.
- The first way it can be taken is by someone taking the medication for a few days when they first feel an outbreak coming on. This can reduce the length and severity of the outbreak and in some cases stop the outbreak from developing.
- You can also take the medication on a daily basis. This can help reduce the amount of outbreaks someone would have as well as the amount of virus that would be shed, which reduces your chance of passing HSV to someone else.
The easiest time to pass HSV to someone else is when you have an outbreak e.g. you have symptoms like open sores.
It is still possible to pass HSV to someone when you are not having an outbreak by having HSV on your skin but with no symptoms, this is called asymptomatic shedding or viral shedding, they think up to 70% of people who get HSV get it from someone who has no symptoms and is shedding the virus.
In terms of someone’s chance of getting HSV I found one study that had information from people in long term relationships. They found that the annual transmission rate for woman if the man had HSV was 11-17% and 3-4% for the man if the woman had HSV. It seems that in this study people did not use condoms or medication but just avoided sex when they were having an outbreak.
Other research has shown that asymptomatic shedding occurs more frequently during the first year of having herpes than it does in later years.
In 2004 the Australian and New Zealand Journal of public health published an interesting article titled “Maintaining sexual health in commercial sex workers in Australia: condom effectiveness, screening, and management after acquiring sexually transmissible infections”. I found it interesting what they had to say about HSV, “If clinically symptomatic, discontinue working until lesions have healed. If in first 2 years of symptomatic infection, or where recurrences occur more than 4 times per year, consider maintenance therapy to reduce viral shedding”.
To answer your question Kilroy I have found some information to say that on average people will shed the virus more often in the first 1-2 years, which means this would increase someone’s chance of passing it on but I have not been able to find any information on how much of a difference there is.
If someone had HSV they could really reduce there chances of passing it to someone else by.
- Avoiding contact with a certain area if having an outbreak. (You could still perform oral sex or use your hands if you have a genital HSV outbreak).
- Using condoms which will reduce the chance of getting or passing HSV.
- Taking daily antiviral medication like valtrex if you have HSV.
Here is some links for further information on HSV.
General information about HSV
http://healthnurse.wordpress.com/fa...nsmitted-infections-sti/herpes-simplex-virus/
Reducing your risk.
http://healthnurse.wordpress.com/fa...-sti/herpes-simplex-virus/reducing-your-risk/
Should you tell?
http://healthnurse.wordpress.com/fa...ons-sti/herpes-simplex-virus/should-you-tell/
HN
www.healthnurse.wordpress.com
www.bccdc.ca
www.stiresource.com
