Comment by trhway | Hacker News Reader

Comment by trhway | Hacker News Reader

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widespread cold sores in a given society i think have 2 pronged effect:

1. a something widespread does usually have naturally higher societal acceptance

2. [IANAD] kind of "de-facto" vaccination/immunization. For example i (like many many Russians) have occasional cold sores (once in a 1-4 years, in CA seems to be less frequently than back in Russia) since childhood. I've had it on both sides of my lips which probably means that i have both - HSV1 and HSV2. That also means that i never going to get it anywhere else on my body (once any one site in the body gets infected with herpes the rest of the body develops immunity)

From descriptions genital herpes seems to be worse than lip cold sores. In US (at least in CA) i see no people with cold sores, so the majority of the population is most probably susceptible to the infection. Given that sexual contact is a frequent transmission method in adulthood (while not a factor in childhood), i'm not surprised that for US population "herpes" statistically means and happens as "genital herpes" (while i haven't heard about such a thing back in Russia where we get it early in the childhood as cold sores on lips).

>I've had it on both sides of my lips which probably means that i have both - HSV1 and HSV2. That also means that i never going to get it anywhere else on my body (once any one site in the body gets infected with herpes the rest of the body develops immunity

This is all contrary to my understanding.

You can definitely spread either strain to other areas of your body. You can spread it around your mouth more and transfer it from your mouth to your genitals.

Thinking you can't get it more will not lead to pleasant outcomes.

To clarify: you don't spread herpes around your mouth or genitals, because that's not where herpes takes up latency.

HSV takes up latency in usually either the dorsal root ganglion (which typically presents with lesions in the genital region), or in the trigeminal ganglion which typically presents with oral lesions.

You are right that infection with one strain does not necessarily grant immunity to infection with another strain.

It is also not true that oral lesions necessarily indicate HSV1 infection, and that genital lesions necessarily indicate HSV2 infection.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK47447/

>That also means that i never going to get it anywhere else on my body (once any one site in the body gets infected with herpes the rest of the body develops immunity)

Do you have a source for that? I have somewhat suspected that was the case based on some other things I've heard, but I have been unable to find any real sources on it.

not really - it was some years ago that i just sat down and googled around exploring the issue. Similar conclusions:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2...

"But as people gained awareness of the contagious nature of cold sores, they became more cautious about exposing young children to a skin outbreak. That means more and more of us get to adulthood without any HSV immunity.

On the one hand, that makes the younger generation more susceptible to HSV-2 -- one won't 100 percent protect you from contracting the other, but they have some antibodies in common. On the other hand, it means that more and more people get their first exposure to HSV-1 not through kissing, but through oral sex."

"I've had it on both sides of my lips which probably means that i have both - HSV1 and HSV2"

This is definitely not true. HSV2 showing up on lips is extremely uncommon. I've had HSV1 for my entire life and any area of my mouth is fair game, as so is the inside of my nose.

I find this fascinating. Never heard the claim before that lip herpes grants immunity to genital outbreaks.

Also, whats source of such common early childhood herpes in Russia? Kissing from infected relatives? Given lethality of neonatal herpes it seems unlikely to be interuterine transmission.

I've heard that claim, and I have subsequently heard it disproven.

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