Alie Ward

It ducks out of sight of your immune system.

It hides in your nerve cells.

And when your immune system is weak or you encounter certain stressors or triggers, the virus hops on the express train of your neurons, long axons, right to the skin where it causes mayhem.

So which skin destinations?

And let's take a peek at the 2022 JAMA paper, Viral Shedding One Year Following the First Episode Genital HSV-1 Infection.

And this paper found that people who had genital outbreaks of herpes simplex number one shed the virus about 12% of the days two months past their initial outbreak.

Now, nearly a year later, that went down to 7% of days.

But that genital shedding could be asymptomatic.

So you kind of never know.

But the steep decline over time in viral shedding is why Dr. Park says it's sometimes a one and done, meaning it's usually dormant, but you never get rid of it entirely.

So not one and done, typically number two.

Yeah.

And what happens, let's say that you contract herpes or you have it.

Yes.

Is there anything anyone can do to make sure that it doesn't recur or that they don't give it to anyone else?

They don't put anyone at risk?

for that.

Like, should people be using dental dams or saran wrap or should they be getting tested or should they disclose anything or should they disclose it only if they're having an active outbreak?

Let's say someone's like, oh, I get cold sores or I've had an outbreak once downstairs or

or recurring, what would be the best course of action?