Sorry for my delay and thanks to the other person for the advice. Usually genital herpes does not affect the eye but it can in some cases so always be very careful to wash your hands a lot and don't get the virus near your eye. Usually ocular herpes is due to the type of herpes you get from a fever blister or cold sore around the mouth or nose so be very wary of that. Now if somehow you did get HSV in your eye, it can definitely be treated very effectively in many cases but can be a real long term hassle with recurrent episodes with some cases developing scarring and vision problems.
Thank you so much for your response and taking the time to answer my questions.
I like websites like this but general info on the web can be terrfying. I was reading about this obstacle in my life and I was dealing with the fact that I had HSV1 better than I thought. Then i read about Ocular Herpes and it basically said that if you get it in your eye you are going to be blind....I freaked out. Haha.
So anyway, thanks for the help!
Hello. I have had a herpes simplex virus on my nose for many years now, so I know what your paranoia is spawning from, trust me. The term you are looking for is herpetic keratoconjunctivitis. Herpetic (the virus) + kerato (inflammation of the cornea) + conjuncti (inflammation of the conjunctiva, commonly known as pink eye).
1. If you touch a part of your body with a herpetic outbreak, you can spread it. Keep in mind, even if the locations of the outbreaks are different, the virus is almost always the same.
2. HSV-1 + 2 are difficult to test for when the outbreak is not present because the virus hides in the nerves when dormant.
3. Herpetic keratoconjunctivitis doesn't normally cause blindness. However, certain people may experience a condition in which the antibodies in your eye fights the antigens which causes a massive autoimmune response in the eye, which may result in the destruction of the corneal stroma and may lead to blindness, however this is relatively uncommon and only results in very persistent outbreaks.
4. Like I mentioned above, the virus can remain dormat in your nerves for a prolonged period of time (for me it was about a year), however I have never heard it remaining dormant for 7 years after exposure.
Relax, and take a deep breath. If you take care of yourself and make sure to limit exposure of the outbreaks, you'll be fine. Even if you do contract an ocular infection, which can be very easily prevented, the chances of even vision loss is minimal.