Cold Sores... acne... oral sex

[haden]

I am a gay male. I tested Negative to both HSV1 and 2 over 4 months ago and have not had any oral sexual experience until two days ago.

About a week ago I got the feeling that I was developing a zit in the very corner of my mouth. I irritated it... like i do most of my zits (bad I know). the area is still dry and not healed up now. my concern is that it never looked like a normal zit. i've been looking at pictures of cold sores and see similarities. it never scabed over yellow and i never had any fever or headaches. how possible easy is it to get HSV1 from someone that has it w/o kissing them or having oral sex with them.

I am afraid if i have it i might have passed it on since the area is not entirely healed now and i was kissing someone a few days ago and performed oral sex on them (and they did so on me).

Can the virus go from someone's hand to my hand (if we shook hands) and then to my face if i touched it? I don't share drinks, so the only thing that has touched my mouth is my own hands.

Thanks

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Assuming your tests 4 months ago were blood tests, you can pretty much rule out herpes.  The only exception, which seems unlikely, is if you were exposed to HSV-1 within the 3 months before the blood test, i.e. too soon for the test to become positive.  A more likely diagnosis is angular cheilitis, an inflammatory lesion at the corner of the mouth.  It can be due to a variety of underlying causes, including malnutrition, and also including HIV.  So if not tested recently for HIV, it would be a good idea.  But in most cases, no predisposing cause can be found.  And I'm not at all sure that's what you have--just an educated guess.  In any case, don't just keep guessing, and don't try to figure it out by online description; see a health care provider.

In the off chance it is herpes, you really don't need to worry about transmission by hand-to-hand contact.  Kissing or oral sex are the only likely routes of tranmission.

Good luck--  HHH, MD

[haden]

i tested negative for hiv over 6 monthes ago and have had little sexual contact since. thanks. I will get tested for hiv again soon and will look up angular cheilitis. i will try to stop freaking out, my test was a herpes select blood test yes.

[haden]

oh... it's almost healed too... just not quite there yet. that's why i was concerned about herpes due to the length of time i've had it and how it presented but it also seems litke a zit that i irritated.

[haden]

It's been a week and there are no other symptoms on my part... one of my partners is now experiencing a sore throat... 7 days after our first oral experience. Neither partner seems to have any sores.