Contagious: Genital herpes

About contagion: Contagion and contagiousness refers to how easily the spread of Genital herpes is possible from one person to another. Other words for contagion include "infection", "infectiousness", "transmission" or "transmissability". Contagiousness has nothing to do with genetics or inheriting diseases from parents. For an overview of contagion, see Introduction to Contagion.

Contagion summary: Sexual activity; sexual intercourse, anal sex, oral sex.

Contagiousness properties of Genital herpes:
  Contagious by sex?: Yes
  Contagious by oral sex?: Yes
  Contagious by anal sex?: Yes
  Contagious by vaginal sex?: Yes

Contagion summary: HSV-1 and HSV-2 can be found and released from the sores that the viruses cause, but they also are released between episodes from skin that does not appear to be broken or to have a sore. A person almost always gets HSV-2 infection during sexual contact with someone who has a genital HSV-2 infection. HSV-1 causes infections of the mouth and lips, so-called "fever blisters." A person can get HSV-1 by coming into contact with the saliva of an infected person. HSV-1 infection of the genitals almost always is caused by oral-genital sexual contact with a person who has the oral HSV-1 infection. ¹

Footnotes:
1. excerpt from Genital Herpes: DSTD

Last revision: April 11, 2003

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