Herpes

Do you show symptoms of herpes (oral or genital) immediately?

When you kiss someone with a cold sore, do a high percentage of people get it and show symptoms right away? If the person had a cold sore on their mouth and performed oral sex on someone would they have contracted it? How about kissing someone who has had cold sores in the past, but has no outbreak at the time- is it safe (meaning you the risk of contracting it is slim)? Same for the oral sex?

Public Comments

1. Herpes is most often contracted when you come into contact with an open sore. Though it is possible to give it to someone when you are not having an outbreak it is far more contagious when you have an open sore. It is not always immediatly apparent that you have it as it can take time to appear. Your best course of action of course is to avoid comming into contact with the open sores of others.
2. As in the first answer, it is possible to spread either HSV1 (cold sores, fever blisters) or HSV2 (genital herpes) while not having an outbreak, the chances of doing so is far slimmer than when either virus is active. With genital herpes, symptoms of the initial outbreak can take up to two weeks to manifest. It is possible to "cross-infect", spreading either virus from mouth to genitals or vice versa.