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Is Genital Herpes A Contagious Disease?
Hi, I was just diagnosed with genital herpes and I am super paranoid about passing this on to my kids. I have a 10 month old and I am breastfeeding her. I keep checking my nipples for any lesions but I'm not really sure what they would look like. I see a little tiny spot on my nipple that looks a little different but it is not painful at all, so not sure if its normal and I'm just worrying too much. Could you please describe what a lesion on a nipple would looklike and would lesions be painful? Thanks
Fri, 27 Jun 2014
Hello and welcome to healthcaremagic
Genital herpes is acquired by intimate sexual contact with an infected person. It is a localized infection. Outbreaks would be confined to the genital area and it won't spread to other parts of the body.
Herpes is not transmitted through fomites, therefore your children won't get it from you. The only way you could infect others is by sexual contact.
The lesion on the nipple is most likely unrelated. Since you are breast feeding a 10 month old baby (usually they teeth by this age), it could be due to biting Or due to constant sucking causing the nipple area to become dry, cracked and sore.
Herpes on the nipple can nevertheless occur, however, it is usually a result of innoculation wherein the skin of the nipple is innoculated by a source of infection e.g oral contact with someone who has a cold sore can innoculate the nipple. The lesions would be classical of herpes i.e grouped discrete, clusters of fluid filled lesions.
Hope this helps
Regards
Genital herpes is acquired by intimate sexual contact with an infected person. It is a localized infection. Outbreaks would be confined to the genital area and it won't spread to other parts of the body.
Herpes is not transmitted through fomites, therefore your children won't get it from you. The only way you could infect others is by sexual contact.
The lesion on the nipple is most likely unrelated. Since you are breast feeding a 10 month old baby (usually they teeth by this age), it could be due to biting Or due to constant sucking causing the nipple area to become dry, cracked and sore.
Herpes on the nipple can nevertheless occur, however, it is usually a result of innoculation wherein the skin of the nipple is innoculated by a source of infection e.g oral contact with someone who has a cold sore can innoculate the nipple. The lesions would be classical of herpes i.e grouped discrete, clusters of fluid filled lesions.
Hope this helps
Regards
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