Question:
Hello everyone,

I just found out today that my blood results came back positive for H. I was currently separated from my wife for the past six months and was having unprotected sex with only one other person. I am planning to get back with my wife and I told her about my diagnosis. She is very supportive and she will be getting tested next week as well. My question is: what is shedding? I just got over an outbreak and showing no signs of it anymore. We had oral sex last night without a condom. Does this basically mean that we can no longer have oral sex without a condom even though I show no signs of outbreak. Thanks for everyones support.

Answer:
Asymptomatic shedding is when the body releases the virus but there is not active outbreak. If you have HS2 (genital herpes) it isn't really that likely that your wife will get it orally. However, the rate of transmission between an infected man and an uninfected woman is around 10% annually.

If your wife's results come back negative, she should look into getting the vaccine for herpes. Right now there are tests going on nationwide and if a woman is negative she can qualify. It is very promising at protecting uninfected women.

Also, you can take daily Valtrex and reduce the risk of infecting her to around .5% annually because that is a daily anti-viral medication that supresses not only outbreaks but asymptomatic shedding.

Good luck.

Answer:
whoa!!! This is a first for me, reading about a vaccination for uninfected women? Is there the same kind of trial going on for men as well? Can you steer me in the direction of where I can take a look at this info? And it's probably in the States right? I am very interested...any help would be great. Thanks!

Answer:
Right now the vaccine is only being tested on Women. I'm not sure why but you can probably find more if you do a search on it. I believe that the trials are being done by NIH (National Institues of Health)

Answer:
The vaccine only works on women.

I've had type one (oral) herpies for years, but a few years back, became a guineapig for Smithkline Beecham... the vaccine trials were blind, three shots over 4-5 months...

What they discovered was that the vaccine seemed to protect uninfected women from getting the virus (ie, innoculated uninfected women that had lovers with herpies seemed to be immune to it).