Oral Herpes vs. Genital Herpes, can you get both?

If you have oral herpes, can you catch genital herpes? I know they are very similar, but didn't know what the story is.

Many diseases have differnet strands. For example HPV has 16 that I know of (cause of cancer cells) The family you talk about is kown as HSV -oral is HSV 1, genital HSV 2. There are more as well in the herpes zoster family, shingles and chicken pox. It is possible for you to get both since they are different strands at the same time but cases are rare (like 1% they say.) There are test to see if you have both the HSV strands as well as others.

I am a dentist.

The answer to your question is yes. While the viruses are extremely similar, they are indeed two different viruses. Oral herpes is caused by Herpes Simplex Virus-1, i.e. HSV-1. Genital Herpes is caused by HSV-2. The vast majority of the population has HSV-1, which causes the notorious sores inside the mouth as well as those unsightly cold-sores that some people get on their lips (called "herpes labialis"). Because it is so common, it is so easy for a young child (or even infant) to acquire it. Oddly enough, the initial infection is quite nasty (primary herpetic gingivostomatitis), causing malaise and fever as well as many ulcers inside and outside of the mouth.

Just FYI, I sometimes prescribe Valtrex and Zovirax for patients of mine who have outbreaks of oral herpetic lesions, even though ads for these drugs are for genital herpes. I often have to explain to patients the similarity between HSV-1 and HSV-2.

Of course you can they are 2 seperate viruses and one does not protect you from the other!!!!

You can catch genital herpes by sexual intercourse with a partner if the person has the disease. If you perform oral sex on someone and they have the disease you can catch oral herpes. Or you can pass oral herpes to someones genitals if you give oral.