IMO, Having antibodies because you've been exposed and "actually having the virus itself" should be assumed to be the same thing.
Not everyone who is infected has outbreaks, but just because a person doesn't have an active lesion doesn't mean that they're not contagious. Asymptomatic shedding occurs on average between 3 and 10 days per year, so the risk of asymptomatic contagion is low, but not nonexistent. What I'm getting at here is that, even if you've never had an outbreak, if you test positive, you could be contagious.
On the other hand, if you test negative to both T1 and T2, you can be assured that you are not contagious, which is always nice to know.
I agree that just knowing the type doesn't tell you anything about the site, since you can get both types in any location (with T1-oral and T2-genital being the most common). However, given that most of us mix Genital-Genital and Oral-Genital contact, it doesn't matter much to me. If you test positive, chances are that it's either on your mouth or your genitals, and if you have sex with me, chances are that both of those are going to be on my genitals, ergo, if you test positive, you could infect me. (Actually, I'm already positive for T1-genital and oral, so perhaps I'd be infecting you.)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 10:03 pm (UTC)Not everyone who is infected has outbreaks, but just because a person doesn't have an active lesion doesn't mean that they're not contagious. Asymptomatic shedding occurs on average between 3 and 10 days per year, so the risk of asymptomatic contagion is low, but not nonexistent. What I'm getting at here is that, even if you've never had an outbreak, if you test positive, you could be contagious.
On the other hand, if you test negative to both T1 and T2, you can be assured that you are not contagious, which is always nice to know.
I agree that just knowing the type doesn't tell you anything about the site, since you can get both types in any location (with T1-oral and T2-genital being the most common). However, given that most of us mix Genital-Genital and Oral-Genital contact, it doesn't matter much to me. If you test positive, chances are that it's either on your mouth or your genitals, and if you have sex with me, chances are that both of those are going to be on my genitals, ergo, if you test positive, you could infect me. (Actually, I'm already positive for T1-genital and oral, so perhaps I'd be infecting you.)