Herpes virus in sun

[Ashleigh1996]

Hi I wanted to know what people’s experiences are when going abroad in the sun when they have the herpes virus. As sunlight is a well known trigger. And I am going away for 3 weeks and terrified I will get an outbreak even tho they aren’t as bad the first one .

[Galen70]

Have you had genital as opposed to perioral ( around the mouth ) herpes ? If so , I have not had patients report this to me, unless you are considering sunbathing nude.

[Ashleigh1996 in reply to Galen70]

It was genital and oral I had with my outbreak. But when I googled it. It said that sunlight is the trigger for type 1 mostly which is genital. Dosent need to be shinning on the genitals to trigger it out apparently

[Galen70 in reply to Ashleigh1996]

HSV 2 is more commonly genital although both types can cause genital changes. Its the UV exposure that triggers HSV periorally , unless the UV penetrates through the clothing its unlikely to do that for the genital area. If you are worried best to get some acyclovir tablets in case of an outbreak - ideally you should have those sunbathing or not as its often impossible to predict when an outbreak might happen.