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Great work and Thank you very much to all the doctors helping the millions of people who come here with questions. I appreciate your service.
I have 2 questions.
a) From the info in the forums i've read that Herpes is transmitted via contact, ie physically moving the virus via rubbing or getting into contact with a sore during the outbreak period. This i assume is the fluid in the herpes sores getting into contact with some part of ones genital area to affect the transmission.
If the Herpes Virus is able to do this, how is it then that the HIV is not transmitted at the same time? suppose the person with Herpes also had HIV wouldnt the HIV virus also be passed along? or would you get herpes and not HIV?
Yes and No, you can acquire both HIV and Herpes together, but Herpes and HIV require different settings. For example, you can acquire herpes by rubbing genitals or through oral sex, you are not likely to catch HIV like that, you can also use a condom and catch herpes, you are not going to catch HIV if you use a condom. However, even if you had unprotected penetrative sex, there is no guarantee that you would catch both or one only. If you do have herpes however, you do have a higher possibility of catching HIV if you have unprotected sex.
I dont think its possible to catch herpes on a location that was protected by a condom, keep in mind that your entire genital area will never be covered by a condom, thus, if the person has an outbreak, you may not see the rash but if its there and it touches your uncovered location, you have a higher risk of catching herpes.
thank you very much for your quick response.
Is it correct to understand that if a person has an unprotected encounter with a parter how is hiv + and also has herpes that the recepient would likely acquire HSV but NOT HIV?
I dont think its possible to catch herpes on a location that was protected by a condom, keep in mind that your entire genital area will never be covered by a condom, thus, if the person has an outbreak, you may not see the rash but if its there and it touches your uncovered location, you have a higher risk of catching herpes.
Is it correct to understand that if a person has an unprotected encounter with a parter how is hiv + and also has herpes that the recepient would likely acquire HSV but NOT HIV?