If you have caught a herpes infection, you can have the first symptoms within about one week. Typical skin lesions do not look the same at every stage of the disease: these skin lesions evolve and change in appearance. It is very important that you tell the GP or midwife. If you have had genital herpes, you can become pregnant without any problems. It is therefore recommended that the inflamed area with blisters and ulcers be touched as little as possible and that the hands be washed thoroughly after possible contact. You can also get a herpes infection on one or more fingers in this way. It is possible to transfer the herpes infection via your own fingers to another part of the body such as the eyes. The rash on the skin or mucous membrane of the mouth, penis, vagina or anus has to be touched in order to become infected.
You cannot get genital herpes if you are just 'around' someone who has herpes. Infection with genital herpes is only possible through sexual contact between people, one of whom has herpes and the other does not. This virus causes an infection of the skin and mucous membranes in and around the genitals. Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a virus in most cases the herpes simplex type 2 virus (HSV-2).
