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Oral herpes

Oral herpes 98% gone, a bit of a red area. am I at risk if my lips came in contact ? And poor husband thought it was gone. We have been together for over 25 yrs with no issues
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207091 tn?1337709493
COMMUNITY LEADER
Goodness, after all this time, chances are good that you already have hsv1. Have you ever tested? You could have gotten it as a child and never had any symptoms. If you have it already, you can't get it again.

The vast majority of people who have it orally never get symptoms, and 2/3 of adults globally have it, so you could easily be one of those people.

If you aren't, with just a bit of red area, and it was just a quick kiss, I wouldn't worry.

If you feel like testing, ask your doctor for a type specific IgG herpes blood test. Ask for a type 1 test only. There are false positives on the hsv2 test, and you don't need to go down that road.
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Avatar universal
Viral shedding can still occur through the healing process, however in clinical research it has been noted that shedding does not necessarily occur everyday a lesion is present.  https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/198/8/1098/879583  That being said, given you've been together so long and that HSV-1 (which I assume this is, though HSV-2 can occur orally as well) is prevalent in 50-80% of the adult U.S. population - he may already be an asymptomatic carrier already.  Hopefully Auntjessi jumps in and gives you more insight.  From my tiny point of view, I would not put to much worry in all of this.
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