Overall statistics versus individual risk based on recency of infection

[Bluebetty]

So, they say the risk of transmission from female to male is 4% (assuming avoiding sex if there are symptoms), 2% with condom, 1% with condom + suppressive therapy. But has anyone seen a study where they compared the frequency of transmission during, say, the first year after being infected versus infected for more than a year once there are high levels of antibodies built up? That would be useful to know.

[Bluebetty]

Well, here is one article:

http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/203/2/180.full

What it's saying is that although the rate of shedding (% of days on which shedding occurs) goes down over time, the amount of shedding when shedding does occur doesn't decrease by that much over time.

[Bambina3]

If transmitting hsv is so rare, stats so low....they how can they say so many are infected and it's a common std ?

[Bluebetty]

I was thinking a lot of transmissions occur right after the person has been infected before they even know it, as during the first year the virus is sort of rampant in the body as the body works to create antibodies. (I was hoping to find a study that showed that people with old infections and high antibody levels are not as dangerous to those who aren't infected yet). And most people don't have symptoms. I think it's common because there are a lot of people having a lot of sex! :)

[Bambina3]

I went almost 30 years without a noticeable outbreak (and even that one resembled a uti)

So I also wonder how really infections am I ? If I done have breakouts, and shedding decreases over time, hmmmmm

[Bluebetty]

I would think you are not very infectious. I do wish they would come up with an inexpensive home test for shedding so you know at the moment if you are unsafe.

[Bambina3]

Yes, hsv is tricky

And since there is sooo much "unknown"

And not much quantified data, it's a wonder some of us feel like we are left out here to sink

[Bluebetty]

Yes, and the scary thing is, I read that is isn't that you are shedding some days and some days not, but shedding intermittently around the clock so you could be "not shedding" at the moment they happened to test you, but shedding later that same day. This is why I choose to be on Valtrex even without breakouts.

[Bambina3]

First you have to understand...to be understood

 

Hsv has so many what ifs and unknowns