A few months back, my friend apparently had a serious makeout session with some random girl. Soon afterwards, he had a sore thoat, but eventually got over it. But he continued to have small, painless papules on his soft palate. Almost like the size of sugar crystals (but not crystalized). He went to the doctor and they said it probably was an upper respiratory virus. But he still has a sore throat like every couple months or so. It just doesn't seem to add up. I told him to see another doctor, but he hasn't yet. What does this sounds like? Thanks.

Hi S&C,

Well I'm no doctor so I can't diagnose, but you're obviously wondering if it might be herpes. It sounds like there should be enough time that's passed since the encounter so that he should be able to get a herpes blood test and trust the results. It can take up to 16 weeks in some cases for enough antibodies to have built up to be detected by the test, so prior to that point it can sometimes return a "false negative" result.

So a *type-specific* blood test will tell him IF he has HSV-1 or HSV-2, although it won't confirm about his throat sores specifically beyond a doubt. Most people already have HSV-1 in the form of cold sores, usually caught in childhood, so if he tests positive for that it won't tell him whether his throat sores are HSV-1.

From what I've read, it's relatively rare for herpes to break out inside the mouth; usually it's on the external skin. Inside the mouth it's usually found just inside the lips, I think; not usually in the throat. I might be wrong about that though.

If getting a second opinion from his doctor or another doctor doesn't help, and if he lives in the US, he might want to check at herpes.org (in this board's Resource Links) and email Dr.H (who runs the site) for the name of a doctor in his area who is reasonably familiar with herpes. Dr.H keeps a database of doctors (mostly in the US, I think) who can be resources for people.

But I suspect that *if* he picked up something from this girl, it could be all kinds of things, not just herpes. He could also request a referral to an ear/nose/throat specialist to take a look at it when it's showing symptoms next time.

Good luck! Let us know how he makes out.

TheOneInFour