Thank you Howard, that was a great exposee. And am really glad that your part of the team here.
dave
I agree this is good information. However, two points of clarification about the transmission rates. First, they apply only to HSV2. Transmission rates for HSV1 are lower. (Genital to genital HSV1 transmission is uncommon, for the reason given by Life360.)
Second, the figures of 4%, 8%, 2%, and 1% for HSV2 transmission are not for each sexual exposure. Those are roughly the rates over a year of unprotected vaginal sex 2-3 times a week, when the infected partner is having no symptoms of an outbreak.
These risks work out to an average transmission risk of 1 chance in 500 to 1 in a thousand for each sexual exposure. This is why single exposures, even to partners known to have HSV2, usually don't result in genital herpes.
Thank you for posting this . Also most infections take place when no symptoms are present and this is a leading reason why. Shedding of genital hsv2 herpes takes place 15-30% of the time so its quite often as compared with hsv1 genital which is 3-5% of the time.