Can You Get Herpes From Kissing?
Is kissing safe? That depends on how you define safe. Kissing can in fact transmit certain infections, such as mononucleosis.
Kissing can also transmit herpes.
This may come as a surprise to some people, though this could be due in part to a lack of insight about what herpes actually is. For instance, some people don’t realize that cold sores are a herpes infection. Specifically cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus, typically HSV 1.
Herpes is spread through skin-to-skin contact, and is most easily spread when a herpes outbreak is in progress. In the case of herpes being spread through kissing then, the most likely infection path would involve cold sores since cold sore symptoms usually occur in the vicinity of the mouth.
If a person having a cold sore outbreak kisses or is kissed by someone else, the herpes / cold sore infection has the definite possibility of being spread. A cold sore won’t always be spread if an outbreak is taking place, but outbreak occurrences are typically when contamination occurs.
The obvious means to prevent becoming herpes infected through kissing then is to avoid kissing someone who is in an active cold sore outbreak. Most people would probably avoid doing this inherently. Studies have demonstrated however that it is possible for herpes to be spread even in the absence of an active outbreak.
This is thought to occur during something called viral shedding, which puts the herpes virus at the skin surface and causes the possibility for infection to occur. While viral shedding may lead to herpes being spread, it is certainly a less likely means for infection than when an active outbreak is taking place.
While herpes should be avoided where possible, it’s worth knowing that herpes is typically not a significant threat to health. Beyond that, effective herpes treatment is available for dealing with any herpes outbreak that should ever occur if infection happens.
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