Herpes from giving a handjob?

[I_am_worried_pls_help]

Two weeks ago I gave a handjob to a stranger (nothing else happened). The encounter lasted about 40 min. Afterwards, I noticed I had a small cut on my finger (a cut that must've already been there but I never noticed before). It wasn't bleeding or anything like that, but, well, it was definitely broken skin. I washed my hands about 20x vigorously after the encounter (I think all that rubbing of my hands with soap while washing them might have irritated the cut because it stung a little bit later that day).

36 hours later I developed flu-like symptoms (muscle aches, fever, fatigue). The cut healed within a couple of days. The flu-like symptoms lasted about a week. I don't have any visible sores or redness anywhere.

Do I need to get tested for herpes? Was this a risky encounter due to the small cut on my finger?

[auntiejessi]

The flu-like symptoms sound like a coincidence, and maybe covid. Herpes symptoms take at least 2 days to appear, including the flu like symptoms.

If you haven't had any sores on your finger by now, I wouldn't worry at all.

[I_am_worried_pls_help]

Thank you. One more question (if you don't mind): if a sore was to appear, am I right in saying that it would likely appear on my finger (where the cut was?) i.e. it's unlikely that a HSV related sore would appear elsewhere (somewhere random) on my body e.g. arms, elbows, legs etc. (if we were to assume that transmission did occur during this encounter)

[auntiejessi]

Yes, that's correct. There is something called herpetic whitlow, which is herpes on the finger. It most often occurs in medical professionals who have their fingers in people's mouths (dental professionals, for example), and people who have a new genital or oral herpes infection who touch a sore before they have antibodies that protect them from getting it in another location on their bodies.

The skin on your body in places that aren't mucus membranes (your mouth, inside your nose, your genitals, etc.) is generally too thick for the virus to penetrate, and if the skin isn't intact - your cut, for example - it can penetrate, and the sore will appear where it entered the body.

There is a form of herpes that affects other parts of the body - herpes gladitorium, but that's something wrestlers get. If a wrestler has oral hsv1, and gets the virus on the mats, and then others are thrashing around on the mat, and chafing their skin all up, it can transmit. This has only happened in wrestlers, so unless you wrestle with little clothing on like the singlet thing they wear, it's not something to worry about.

Really, I wouldn't worry about this. If your finger was scabbed, that's protective.

[I_am_worried_pls_help]

Very helpful. Thanks very much!