Herpes...

[Guest toughboy]

I was recently with an escort for the first time and he later told me that he had herpes but at the time we'd got together he was "between" outbreaks. I was wondering what the risk is of contracting herpes when someone is in this "dormant" period.

 

This leads me to the question of how reponsible escorts are about being up front about their health status with their clients. A friend told me that he contracted syphillis from one of the escorts hewas with--that the escort apparently didn't know that he'd contracted it himself. Aren't sex workers supposed to be tested for such things on a regular basis?

 

Anyone had experiences they can share with me?

[mmk]

http://sexuality.about.com/library/weekly/aa082597.htm

 

Here is a link that will tell you all about Herpes. I did date someone back in 1993 who had contracted herpes a few years prior and that was the only outbreak he ever had. (he had contracted it about 4 years before we met and did tell me before we fooled around) To my knowledge, he has not had any more outbreaks since his initial one.

 

I do agree with you that you should have been told beforehand about his herpes so you could have made the choice whether you wanted to be with him or not.

[VaHawk]

You are probably okay if he was in a dormant period, but I'm not sure of that, but check out the site posted in the previous message. In reality, you can not rely on the other guy, escort or non-escort, to reveal such information to you upfront, and should always practice safe sex practices, although you can get herpes just from kissing. I don't, thank God, have herpes, but I don't think it is the end of the world if you do have it, as it is rather common among all sexual orientations, but I have heard that it is easily treatable during outbreak periods. And you are correct in that the escort should have revealed this to you!!

[Guest JT]

First of all, I'd recommend you to visit the Center for Disease Control (CDC) site whenever you have any questions regarding infectious diseases including STDs. The CDC is one of the most reliable source of information about STDs in the world.

 

Secondly, while herpes simplex virus type 2 is the most common form that is associated with genital herpes, HSV-1 (the causative agent of cold sores) has been implicated as well. The symptoms caused by the two forms are indistinguishable. Once you're infected, you're infected for life. These two viruses, together with other members of the Herpes virus family (such as chickenpox, shingles, EBV and CMV) are latent viruses in that they tend to "hide" or "remain dormant" inside certain parts of our body postinfection. Depending on a host of factors (such as aging, immunocompromised state, etc.), they can become reactivated with symptoms. There is no cure for these infections even though treatment is available for reducing the duration and severity of recurring herpes simplex infections.

 

Lastly, I'd suggest that you do not rely solely on the escorts being upfront about their infection status in order to protect yourself. You need to educate yourself and take whatever precautions you deem necessary that are compatible with your risk tolerance. Why? Because the escort himself may not be aware of his own infection status. Many STDs are inapparent, and all would go through an asymptomatic stage (i.e. incubation period), yet during that time the infection can still be spread from one person to another. Even if the escort has done regular testing, the test results do not provide 100% guarantee that he is infection-free. The test results could be false-negatives either due to (1) the inherent inaccuracies of the tests or errors committed in the lab; and (2) the "window period" during which the antibodies of interest are not detectable in the blood yet. Even if the results are true negatives, they only confirm the infection status of the individual at the time of testing but tell you nothing about any infections that might have been contracted afterwards.

 

JT

[scott90746]

First of all, if this is an escort who is reviewed here and what you say is true (and I assume it is), it would be an appreciated service to us to post who this escort is ! What a freakin scum-bag. Nice of him to tell you AFTERWARDS. I would not have taken the news well and he might have been eating out of a tube for a lengthy period of time after this revelation to me!

 

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