Pratyushee Ghosh, Amity University Kolkata
Unkempt public bathrooms are the site of worst nightmares, but it’s highly unlikely (though not impossible) that they’ll impart you with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). STDs are infections that are spread from one person to a different, usually during vaginal, anal, and perversion. They’re common, and many individuals who have them don’t have any symptoms. Without treatment, STDs can result in serious health problems. But the nice news is that getting tested is not any big deal, and most STDs are easy to treat.
A common fear among people is that STIs will be passed publicly, like through contact with toilet seats. While it’s theoretically possible that some STIs might be passed from person-to-person via a privy seat, it’s extremely unlikely that you just will become infected during this manner. STDs are often caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites which involve chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and syphilis. Viral STIs include viral hepatitis, herpes simplex, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and human papillomavirus (HPV, the virus that causes genital warts). Only parasitic STDs like crabs (pubic lice) or trichomoniasis have any real chance of being transmitted by sitting on a grimy seat. And even then, the chances are extremely low.
Your genital area would wish to come back into contact with the restroom seat while the parasite remains on that, and alive — and toilet seats don’t provide ideal living situations for parasites.
Since bacterial STIs cannot survive outside the environment of mucous membranes within the body, it’s essentially impossible to contract one by sitting on toilet facility seats. Viral causes of STIs cannot survive for long outside the chassis either so that they generally die quickly on surfaces like toilet seats. And within the case of HIV, any surviving virus on a bathroom seat would be unable to achieve your bloodstream unless you had an open wound that made direct exposure prove with the virus on the seat, a very unlikely anticipated.
To contract an STI from a contaminated seat, a “perfect scenario” would occur. The virus from an infected person would be deposited onto the rest room seat immediately before you sat on that, live outside the body for a period of your time, and be positioned within the exact place for transmission to require place.
Because this condition is so questionable, the US government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declares that STIs, including syphilis, HPV, and HIV, can not be transmitted via toilet seats. They are going on to mention that contracting pubic lice from a bathroom seat is extremely unlikely because the lice cannot live for long faraway from a warm body and that they don’t seem to be ready to “walk” or hold onto smooth surfaces like toilet seats. Furthermore, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases states that the herpes simplex virus “is spread rarely, if at all, by objects like bathroom seats or hot tubs.”
It is highly unlikely that you simply will become infected with an STI through contact with a bathroom seat.
The best method of stopping STIs is to refrain from sexual contact. If you are doing do it, you’ll lower your risk of getting an STI by having only monogamous sex with someone who doesn’t have an STI. Although condoms don’t prevent all STIs, they’ll prevent some, and you ought to always use condoms when having vaginal, anal, or perversion.
Of course, it cannot hurt to require some extra hygienic precautions when using toilet seats. If you utilize a public restroom, it’s reasonable to wipe off the bathroom seat and canopy it with tissue paper or a bathroom seat cover before sitting down.
Also read: Myocardial injury in severe COVID 19 as compared to non-COVID ARDS
Reference:
- Genital HPV Infection – Fact Sheet; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.https://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/hpv-Fs-July-2017.pdf
- Sexually transmitted infections; U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.https://www.hhs.gov/programs/topic-sites/sexually-transmitted-infections/index.html#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Centers%20for,these%20STIs%20are%20among%20youth.
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