Concerned about exposure

[taz_100]

Hi Doctor, thank you for your help in advance,



My question is simple, I went to a bachelor party and after drinks I ended up with the striper or pro I dont know, I told her I didnt want sex so she gave me a massage but at the end she kissed me in the mouth for about 20 or 30 seconds until I realized what I was doing and stopped it.



I would like to know what is the risk for STDs but mostly for HIV and SPECIALLY for Hep B in this situation, the info on the web is conflicting about it, it was a soft kiss no bitting or blood present that I remember. Are there any reported cases of Hep B this way?



It has been like a month since and I feel like stomach pains some times. Do I need testing? I know my Hep B status prior to this situation and it was negative, and if I need it how long should I wait after that date to get reliable results.



Thank you



Taz

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Anything you can get by kissing isn't classified as an STD.  The biggest risk from kissing is the common cold.  Herpes due to HSV-1 is a theoretical risk, but you probably already have it anyway (more than half the population is infected, mostly without symptomatic oral herpes).  Neither HIV nor hepatitis B is transmitted by kissing.  Your stomach pains undoubtedly are entirely unrelated to the kissing episode, unless due to your somewhat irrational anxiety about it; and in any case stomach pain isn't a symptom of hepatitis, HIV, or any STD.  You do not need testing for anything.  But see your health care provider if you stomach pain persists.



Good luck-- HHH, MD

[monkeyflower]

You can't get a STD from kissing, not even HBV. Well, you could get HSV 1, but I wouldn't really consider that a STD in this case, and you've no doubt already been exposed to it.

[concernedinsf]

I agree with the previous comment.  You can't get anything from kissing, with the exception of HSV-1, and even that isn't really an STD.

[moet]

it is an STD if he has oral sex with someone and she gets in the genitals.

[concernedinsf]

I think Dr. H has mentioned many times in this forum that HSV-1 isn't considered an STD, and I think that's regardless of where it resides.

[moet]

I wish!! Dr. H, Do you consider HSV 1 in the vagina an STD?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Oral herpes is not an STD, even though kissing is often (but not always) a sexual act; most cases are not acquired through sexual kissing, but by casual oral exposure.  But of course the genitals cannot be exposed to a mouth and dismiss it as non-sexual contact.



The vast majority of people with oral HSV-1 did not acquire it sexually, and if sex were magically eliminated in human relations, the overall frequency of oral herpes wouldn't change much; but genital herpes, due to either HSV-1 or HSV-2, would disappear.  Likewise, hepatitis B and HIV are STDs, even though there also are non-sexually-acquired routes of infection (transmission to newborns, blood exposure).  In gay men, hepatitis A and certain intestinal infections are almost always sexually transmitted, because of the high potential for oral exposure to feces, even though the same infections generally are not sexually transmitted in heterosexual couples or in the general population.



So genital herpes due to HSV-1 is an STD.  Oral herpes is not.  (Some epidemiologists and STD experts might disagree with this classification.  But most would agree.)



HHH, MD