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How Is Herpes Transmitted?
Question: i had herpes before i had my son 2 yrs ago. could i have passed that to him?
Brief Answer:
risk is low
Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic
Antibodies are formed in response to infection. The presence of antibodies show that a person has been exposed to a particular virus, bacteria, fungi or parasite.
Antibodies would have formed in your body in reaction to the herpes virus. They would have played 2 roles: (1)passed to the baby to protect him from the virus itself. Babies receive a mother's antibodies to different possible infections, these antibodies help them to fight infection since they have little immune system
(2)the antibodies would have also reduced the amount of virus that was shedding into your vaginal tract further reducing the chance
The risk of transmission is greater if a baby is delivered vaginally in a person with active lesions or if a women develops herpes for the first time during pregnancy.
If you had herpes prior to pregnancy and no active lesions at the time of delivery then the risk of transmission would have been very very low.
Chances are, since children's immune system is not as well developed as adults, that if he had the virus from you, he would've had an outbreak by now.
I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions
risk is low
Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic
Antibodies are formed in response to infection. The presence of antibodies show that a person has been exposed to a particular virus, bacteria, fungi or parasite.
Antibodies would have formed in your body in reaction to the herpes virus. They would have played 2 roles: (1)passed to the baby to protect him from the virus itself. Babies receive a mother's antibodies to different possible infections, these antibodies help them to fight infection since they have little immune system
(2)the antibodies would have also reduced the amount of virus that was shedding into your vaginal tract further reducing the chance
The risk of transmission is greater if a baby is delivered vaginally in a person with active lesions or if a women develops herpes for the first time during pregnancy.
If you had herpes prior to pregnancy and no active lesions at the time of delivery then the risk of transmission would have been very very low.
Chances are, since children's immune system is not as well developed as adults, that if he had the virus from you, he would've had an outbreak by now.
I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions
Note: For more detailed guidance, please consult an Internal Medicine Specialist, with your latest reports. Click here..
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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