Can you transmit HSV2 to your child's eye?

[Abchsv]

Hi there, I'm a mum that has had HSV2 for many years and the thought of passing it to my children has caused me much mental anguish for a long time. I usually try to be pragmatic, but I do avoid contact with babies and somewhat with my own children.
This morning in my half asleep, half awake state, I remember scratching my vagina. More so on the outside where the public hair is, not inside the mucosal part of the labia. Between half an hour and an hour later, my daughter came in to me with a couple of eyelashes in her eye. Without thinking I touched her eyeball with my finger to remove the eyelashes.
I had been awake and made a coffee a d looked at my phone etc, but I HADN'T WASHED MY HANDS!
I don't know which hand I'd used to scratch myself or which hand I'd put on her eyeball.
I'm petrified that the contact I'd had with her eye will develop into ocular herpes. I feel that I'm on the cusp of an outbreak but no lesion yet, I usually only have fissures on the inside of the labia.
Have I put my daughter at risk?

[auntiejessi]

Oh hon, no. Herpes isn't transmitted like this at all.

First, herpes dies very quickly once exposed to air. If you had any virus on your fingers, and that's a strong if, it would have died long before your daughter came in.

Second, if you had virus on your hand, there probably wasn't enough to transmit it to anyone after just a quick scratch, especially when you didn't have an outbreak.

Third, even if this was a sexual partner, and you touched yourself then immediately touched your partner's genitals, it wouldn't transmit. Hands are just a really inefficient way of transmitting any STD.

While you can infect yourself by touching an outbreak, then immediately touching your eye, this almost always happens when you are first infected. There is a lot of virus present then, and you have no antibodies to protect against this.

You are not a walking bio-hazard, just waiting to infect someone. The ONLY way you will infect your children is if you have inappropriate sexual contact with them. Please do not avoid normal interaction and contact with babies or especially your own kids. Don't deprive yourself or them of this special love. It's unnecessary.

A side note - most ocular herpes infections are hsv1, the result of the virus traveling up the nerve to the eye, not hsv2.

You deserve to have a full life, a fully wonderful relationship with your kids. Don't let herpes hold you back. It doesn't have to.

[Abchsv]

Thank you so much auntiejessi. I really appreciate your response. I think I might screenshot it and refer back to it when I do feel like that biohazard.

[auntiejessi]

Good. Whatever helps, do that. :)

We're here if you ever have questions.

[Abchsv]

Auntiejessi, I'm sorry, but my anxiety about this episode has just flared up again.
This morning my daughter said her eye feels a little  puffy just as a passing comment. I immediately felt a simultaneous hot and cold feeling through my body.
I just wanted your reassurance I guess.
Because I'd touched the mucosal membrane of her eye, it seems such a vulnerable place.
I remember having a viral flu like sickness before my first outbreak, IF I had transmitted it to my daughter, would she have the same flu like illness before any other symptom?
Also, silly me read an article describing  a study about HSV on on a door handle transferring to participants hands at 2 hours.
Thanks auntiejessi, I was doing really well there for a bit.

[auntiejessi]

Oh hon.

Stop reading studies. I don't know what studies you've been reading, but even if hsv was on door handles at 2 hours later (I find this suspicious) and it transferred to hands (I find this even more suspect), that doesn't mean it would transfer to any body part and infect that way.

There are all kinds of things on door handles, especially in places like bathrooms (don't read up on that - it's disgusting). Not all of those germs are in numbers enough to infect and make you sick. There are germs all over hotel rooms, but few of us get sick after staying in a hotel room.

I have allergies. My eyes feel puffy almost every day. Maybe your daughter had something in her eye? A hair? Pet hair? Dust? Is she back in school yet? Back to school is a great time for colds - several of my friends already have sick kids from the first week of school. Maybe she got shampoo in her eye. Pink eye is also a possibility with back to school. The list of possibilities is endless.

If she was having an primary infection - no hsv1 or 2 in her body before - she would likely feel the flu-like symptoms you did.

Unless you are having inappropriate sexual contact with your daughter, she isn't going to get herpes from you. Millions - and yes, millions - of parents have hsv2. If it were that easy to infect others, we'd hear all kinds of stories about it. It just isn't that easy. It actually wouldn't be that easy for you to infect a male sexual partner while having sex - if all you did was avoid sex during an outbreak, there's only a 4-5% chance of transmission a year. It just can't, scientifically, be easier to infect someone non-sexually.

[Abchsv]

Thanks again auntiejessi, I've shared this post and your comments with my husband. He agrees with everything you've said. On a cognitive level I do too. It's just those damn fear chemicals!

[auntiejessi]

I get it - we never want our kids to hurt for any reason, especially because of us. You aren't perfect, though, and will make mistakes - every parent does. Infecting your child with herpes won't be one of them, I promise. :)