Question:
does anyone know if you can autoinnoculate yourself on another part of your body with out having an outbreak? i did not have any active lesions and somehow ended up with a sore on my breast. how did this happen? from shedding? i have also gotten what i believe are herpes on the back of my neck. the one on my breast took several months to heal. do these sores on other parts of your body recure as much or just like the genital ones? do they shed just like the other spots?
i rarely have genital oubreaks but get them on my neck and now this one on my breast. i have also gotten very small blisters around my mouth which go away with in a few days, but ive heard that hsv2 rarely reoccures on your mouth. is it just me or am i some weird case? i feel like my entire body is contaminated.

Answer:
Hi Geneveve

Wierd locations. I have no clue but it made me wonder if that might be shingles (Herpes Zoster)? I had that once, on my neck and on my chest. They were pretty pronounced sores, waay different (and MUCH more painful) than any HSV symptom I've had. Are yours very painful? Do they occur on only one side of your body? I think that's the criteria for shingles. Mine took a long time to heal, as well. That was 12 years ago or something, haven't had an ob since, but I remember it vividly

Answer:
Can you tell me about this........I know its a family of the chicken
Pox virus, but is it contagious like HSV???

Answer:
Here you go: From the CDC page.

What is shingles?
Shingles, or herpes zoster, is caused by the chickenpoxvirus that remains in the nerve roots of all persons who had chickenpox and can come out in your body again years later to cause illness.


Shingles is more common after the age of 50 and the risk increases with advancing age. Shingles causes numbness, itching or severe pain followed by clusters of blister-like lesions in a strip-like pattern on one side of your body. The pain can persist for weeks, months or years after the rash heals and is then known as post-herpetic neuralgia.

Is shingles contagious?
Yes, people with shingles are contagious to persons who have not had chickenpox. Therefore, people who have not had chickenpox can catch chickenpox if they have close contact with a person who has shingles. However, you can not catch shingles itself from someone else. Shingles is caused by the chickenpox virus which has been dormant (staying quiet) in your body ever since you had chickenpox. So, you get shingles from your own chickenpox virus, not from someone else.

What should I do if I get shingles?
Contact your health care provider as soon as possible to discuss treatment with antiviral medications. These medications are most effective if given as soon as possible after rash onset.

Can someone who has been vaccinated for chickenpox develop shingles?
Yes. However, a study conducted among children with leukemia determined that after receiving the vaccine these children were much less likely to develop shingles than children who had prior natural chickenpox. Available information from healthy children and adults suggest that shingles is less common in vaccinated healthy persons compared with persons who have had natural chickenpox.

Is there a vaccine available to prevent or modify shingles?
No; however, a study is currently underway with a new formulation of the chickenpox vaccine to determine whether vaccination of persons older than 55 years of age will reduce the frequency and/or severity of shingles in adults. Results from this study will be available in about 5 years.

Answer:
This question really might sound crazy, but I was diagnosed with HSV when I went to my gyno. I only had 1 small red bump located not in my vagina but on the cheek area before you get to the butt cheek (difficult place to describe!!) and it wasn't blister like and the same side of my groin was (minorly) swollen. I've had an itchy annoying rash on my upper chest and back too...could my test results have been positive, because I have shingles and that's in the same family as hsv??? Also, how frequent are false positive test results when it comes to herpes? I've only had sexual contact (of any kind) with the same guy for years and he said his std test was negative cuz they tested him when he had a rash (that ended up being from cholrine) and I can't figure out how this happened?? In addition it's been a good three months and I don't have any symptoms of genital herpes...HELP ME I'M SO CONFUSED! :(