contagious - Herpes Message Board

echmom · 11-30-2007, 11:44 PM

i recently found out that my teenage daughter has genital herpes, my question is, she did not have oral sex with this boy, we use the same drinking cup in the bathroom, can anyone else in this house get mouth herpes by drinking off the same cup, juice bottle etc as our daughter?

sara43 · 12-01-2007, 06:34 AM

There are two types of herpes, Simplex 1 and 2. Usually 1 is cold sores and found around the mouth. However it can be present anywhere on the body. If someone has a cold sore and gives someone else oral sex then that person can get 1 there as well. Herpes 2 is generally found on the genitels. Your daughter should be tested to see is she has 1 or 2. And from a previous Dr's comments on this site; no the virus cannot live on objects such a cups, toilets, etc. It has to be from sex etc. I ended up with Herpes 1 and 2 down there from someone who told me that he was tested and fine. Well he lied or didn't know. Thousands of people have herpes and don't even know it. It can lay dormant for years. My family has been wonderfully supportive to me and it helps.
Good luck and god bless.
Sara.

catharine101 · 12-01-2007, 07:03 AM

Echmom -

Your daughter has genital herpes. In order for someone else in your household to contract the virus, they would need to be in contact with her genitals.

She doesn't have oral herpes, so it's not possible to transfer a virus from a location where it doens't exist on her body.

Hey Sara - We're not doctors... just fellow sufferers!!

echmom · 12-01-2007, 11:30 AM

hello, thank you both for replying, im just a little freaked out about her getting this, she is totally depressed about it and im trying to be supportive of her and educate myself for the rest of my families health. i read somewhere that even though my daughter tested positive for genital herpes, that sometimes it can be in her mouth too, because the virus is in her body, so i wanted to get a clearer answer. thank you again.

catharine101 · 12-01-2007, 11:40 AM

The blood test will indicate Whether or not she has herpes, and what type she has, but it doesn't indicate location. The only way to tell location is by visually seeing the sores. I'm guessing she has/had gential sores, and this prompted her original diagnoses. The only way to tell if she has oral herpes as well, is if she starts developing cold sores.

I guess my question would be, does the guy have oral or genital herpes?? If it was genital, and she didn't perform oral sex on him as you indicated, then she wouldn't have contracted oral herpes. However, if he has oral herpes, and she contracted the genital herpes from oral sex performed on her, then she could have also contracted the virus orally from kissing - he was obviously in a shedding or contagious phase, so this conceivably could have happened.