I live in a non-sexual relationship with someone who has herpes. Am I at risk of catching herpes from the swimming pool – hot tub – toilet seat – shared towel – etc?
September 30th, 2008 | by admin |This chance of contracting a herpes infection when living in a non-sexual relationship with a person with genital herpes (or oral herpes for that matter) is vanishingly small. The herpes virus has to actually enter the body of another person through a broken area of the skin. The virus will not enter through intact skin. So, touching the blister fluid from a herpes infection with the tip of a finger would not transmit the infection directly to the finger, for example. On the other hand, if the finger that had touched the blister fluid was then used to scratch an itch on the eyelid before being washed with soap and water, for example, the infection could, in fact, be transmitted to the eyelid, and possibly into the eye, if the person scratched hard enough to create a tiny, microscopic tear in the skin.
The chlorine that is in pools, hot tubs, and shower water kills virus. Soap of course instantly kills virus. One can find occasional reports of people who claim that they have contracted herpes from a hot tub. But, such a case must be extremely rare. Cases of facial herpes have been reported to have been transmitted during rugby playing, presumably because of an infected player transmitting it to other players.
The infected person should be encouraged to use good sense and to not place others at risk when symptoms are obvious. Infected persons should understand their responsibility to clean infected areas on their bodies well with soap and water and to refrain from contacting common household areas with the infected part of their bodies when active infection is present. At a time when they have an active infection on the genitalia, if they were to sit on a toilet seat that is used by others, it would be common courtesy to clean the toilet seat after use with either alcohol or soap and water on a clean cloth and then set the cloth aside to be laundered in a hot wash.
