Friday, May 23, 2008

Genital Herpes and Oral Sex

Genital herpes is one of the most contagious STDs. Any type of sexual relation with an affected person can infect the partner with genital herpes. Can oral sex spread genital herpes? Let us find out.

Genital Herpes- How does the infection spread?

Both types of herpes viruses- HSV1 and HSV2 cause genital herpes. If a person with cold sore performs oral sex on another, he/she will transmit the virus and the other person will get genital herpes.

HSV1 virus can cause both cold sores and genital herpes. So anybody with cold sore is an active carrier of the virus. If such a person performs oral sex when he/she does not have any active cold sore, they can still transmit the virus. That is called asymptomatic shedding. By kissing a person with cold sores you may get cold sores and not genital herpes.

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