Hello Doctor(s),
First, I have to confess that I am a bit of a hypochondriac. Now that I have that out of the way, I will share my situation: I am a 29 year gay old male and I will be 30 next month.
Lately I have been reading about HHV8 and how it is spread through saliva and may be a causative factor in the development of kaposis sarcoma and lymphoma cancer. I read that most HIV-positive gay males carry the HHV8 virus.
About five years ago, I dated a man who was HIV-positive. We never had sex, but we kissed several times, some of it being "deep kissing". At the time, I thought this was "safe" and I didn't want to make him feel more stigmatized by keeping a total "hands-off" policy. We agreed to remain friends. At the time we kissed, he never had visible signs of KS. Needless to say, I regret what I did and I regret being so liberal and letting my compassion override my sense of safety. I am convinced I probably now have HHV8 and I don't know how to tell my current boyfriend.
My current boyfriend and I are in a monogamous relationship and we are both HIV negative, Hep A / B negative, Herpes1&2 negative, and both free of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Neither of us have any visible genital warts and we hope to maintain our healthy status....but there is that lingering fear of HHV8 that I am carrying from my past kissing incident with the HIV-positive guy. My questions are:
1.) Should I try to find a lab to test for HHV8? or would you know one I could use?
2.) Is there a high rate of cancer for people who have HHV8 that you know about? In other words, should I expect it to become malignant sometime in my life?
3.) Should I follow the general anti-cancer diet of lots of antioxidants and fruits/veggies in order to keep HHV8 from gaining a foothold if it's there?
4.) As an HIV-negative person (and if I have HHV8?) are my odds of never having a cancer from HHV8 pretty good?
Thank you in advance, Dr. Hook and Handsfield for your time and consideration.