I was told by my doc about 2 years ago that I had genital herpes... I haven't seen a sign since... does anyone know when and if I could be shedding this???
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Herpes
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Well herpes arent like skin, they dont fall off. They can show up at netime. The only thing u can do is take pills for the symptoms
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shedding herpes meaning shedding the virus, not shedding skin... anyone else who knows more about herpes?
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i dont think there is a cure for herpes
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That was my point, i was showing an example with skin, (aka sarcasm). There is no cure for herpes, they will never go away, u will always have the virus.
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um, well...i know i can't get rid of it!!!! my question was "when or if am i shedding the virus..." does anyone know if someone who doesn't have symptoms is always shedding the virus or shedding it at random times...
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Wtf are you talking about by shedding the virus? Are you talking about when are you contagious? because you are always contagious
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"Shedding" is the common medical term for when one's herpes infection is contagious.
From http://members.aol.com/herpesite/trans.html#shed ...
In reply to:
Asymptomatic Shedding
Asymptomatic Shedding is the release of the virus on the skin when there are no symptoms. These asymptomatic shedding episodes occur (according to studies) typically 3 to 10 days in the year, so although the risk is minimal it does exist, because one can't tell when those days are. During an episode of asymptomatic shedding, virus often sheds from several different sites in the area concurrently. And there is new research suggesting that shedding occurs more frequently than previously thought. In a recently published study, researchers found that half of the episodes of subclinical shedding of HSV occurred within seven days of a symptomatic recurrence. Asymptomatic shedding is not detectable by any accessible procedure. It should be noted that for the first 6 months to a year after a primary episode, shedding may occur much more frequently. The incidence of asymptomatic shedding is greatest during the first year or two after infection.
Shedding occurs randomly and sporadically and seems to some degree influenced by sites of infection and viral type, severity and frequency of outbreaks, though studies remain unclear. Thus, the more outbreaks one has, the more severe one's outbreaks are, the higher the incidence of shedding. HSV-2 seems to shed more often than HSV-1, particularly in genital infections. Medical experts believe asymptomatic shedding is responsible for most cases of transmission. Suppressive acyclovir therapy has been shown in some studies to reduce the rate of shedding by up to 95%.
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thank you:)
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ata7... if you don't know much about the subject, you shouldn't get all excited. You are not always contagious.
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In reply to: A person is considered contagious when prodromal symptoms, active sores, and healing lesions are present.Herpes is potentially contagious when no symptoms are present. That is, a person who has genital herpes is potentially always shedding active virus. Hmm thats odd....herpes.com seems to think you are always at least potentially contagious
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herpes.com> That is, a person who has genital herpes is potentially always shedding active virus.I interpret this to mean that, since you don't know when you may be asymtomatically shedding virus, you have to always assume you're contagious. It like the need to always use a condom if your sex partner is not on birth control, since you never know exactly when she's fertile.The frequency and duration of subclinical shedding appears to be highly variable among individuals, but what I quoted agrees with what I've read regarding recent research into herpes transmission.As Go Ask Alice! says: "Precisely because there aren't any obvious symptoms or sensations when a person is experiencing asymptomatic shedding, it's virtually impossible to tell when s/he is contagious."References:Anna Wald, et al, Virologic Characteristics of Subclinical and Symptomatic Genital Herpes Infections, New England Journal of Medicine, 21 Sept. 1995Anna Wald, et al, Suppression of Subclinical Sheddting of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 with Acyclovir, Annals of the American College of Physicians, 1 January 1996.This paper is more to the point on when viral shedding occurs:Anna Wald, et al, Frequent Genital Herpes Simplex Virus 2 Shedding in Immunocompetent Women, March 1997, Journal of Clinical Investigation.Anna Wald, MD, MPH's name pops up a lot in herpes and acyclovir research. She is the lead researcher on a lot papers.
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And if you dont know if you're showing sypmtoms then technically you are always contagious. You dont know when you are so u always have to go about as if you know you are
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That's pretty much what I said, except that technically you are not always contagious, just like an (adolescent to menopausal) woman is technically not always fertile. But effectively, they're both true.