It’s highly contagious even if there isn’t an open sore. On the other hand, HSV-2 is the one that’s usually responsible for genital herpes. Repeat after me, “Not all herpes viruses are created equal.” Having chicken pox does not mean you’re going to get genital herpes, or vice versa. You don’t want any of them, but they’re all different or flare up in different ways. For instance, both chicken pox and shingles are caused by a type of herpes strain (herpes zoster, to be exact.) Other strains cause conditions like Kaposi’s sarcoma, Epstein-Barr virus, etc.Īll of that to say, if you have a strain of herpes in your body, it does not necessarily mean that you only have one “bad” or “less bad” type of infection. There are multiple different viruses linked to herpes. Viruses Linked To Herpes & Types Of Herpes Virusesįirst off, you should know that genital herpes is not the only kind of herpes people don’t want to get. These viruses are closely related but not identical.

Herpes simplex 1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex 2 (HSV-2), can cause a genital herpes infection. When most of us hear the word “herpes” used, we think of the ones “down there”-AKA genital herpes (not to be confused with genital warts.)

Can you get hsv2 from touching