Herpes outbreaks spreading to new areas?

[Scaredandalone85]

I have had herpes (hsv-1) for over 10 years yet recently over the past few months I’m getting sores over my chest, I started taking antiviral drugs and now i have what I believe to be facial, oral, and eye herpes too. My first outbreak was genital and from reading information I thought once you had it in a certain area that’s where it would stay. Why am I riddled with it. Has anyone else experienced this? I feel like completely giving up

[mr_hopp]

I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through it! Totally makes sense that you're feeling confused and frustrated, especially since you've had herpes for a long time and now this out of the blue. But don't give up! I'm glad you had the courage to reach out for help. That's huge. 

And you're right — herpes outbreaks do tend to recur in the same location on the body: Once the nerve pathway of choice has been established by the first outbreak, that becomes the "path of least resistance" from the spine to the surface of the skin for future outbreaks. It's important to note that spreading the infection to other parts of the body (also known as auto-inoculation) is rare unless there are specific factors affecting the immune system. Auto-inoculation only tends to happen close to when the initial infection occurs (before the body has time to build up immunity), so it's really odd if that's what this is a decade later. It's possible that there might be other factors at play in your situation that we won't be able to determine online.

To get a clearer understanding of what's happening, I'd get a consult with a healthcare professional. They can swab these areas and specifically test to make sure the swabs show herpes. It may be a different kind of rash happening that isn't herpes-related at all, but a swab will be able to give you that super important data point.

Keep us updated and stay positive!

[meMovingForward]

Don't give up. I had my first eye outbreak three weeks ago. It's not fun but it gets better with time.