Question:
Everyone always says that if you have oral herpes and you touch it and touch another part of your mouth, ears, nose, etc, you can spread it but

If someone else has herpes on their mouth and touches it and then
touches an object, such as a doorknob, a file cabinet handle,
paper, a pen, or even if you go shake their hand, etc.... If you
go and touch that object it after they do, can you get it?

How long does it stay alive on these objects?

Answer:
Herpes cannot live outside the body for very long at all. It is virtually impossible to acquire it from anything else other than sexual transmission...etc. (Less than 1%) I believe one must come in direct contact with an open herpes lesion in order to be in any real danger of contracting it. If anyone tells you that you can get it from a doorknob or a toilet seat, tell them to do thier research, because everything I've read (and I've done a lot of reasearch) and every doctor I've talked to has told me there is really no way that could happen. Hope this helps! :D

Answer:
yea, but can someone that has herpes on their mouth/nose and/or eye go and touch it or scratch it then go and touch a door knob, a file cabinet handle, a pen, press a button on a copy machine, or whatever object it may be and then someone comes behind them and touches that same object that person just touched and then touch their mouth/eye/nose and get it?

Or can a person that already has hs1 touch that same object and touch an area and trigger an outbreak?????

How long can it possibly live outside of the body? How long will it last on that persons finger or hand, whatever he touched the open lesion with?

I heard from a doctor that herpes can live underneath your finger nail if you scratch it for up to 6 months, is that true?????

Thank you.

Answer:
I'm not quite sure EXACTLY how long herpes can live outside the body, but it is not very long. If in fact it could, then everyone would be getting it from touching things...etc. and it would not be called a sexually transmitted disease anymore. If you read anything on HSV, the way its transmitted is from genital to genital/skin to skin contact. There have been no documented cases, according to my doctor, of anyone contracting herpes from touching a doorknob and the like.

Or can a person that already has hs1 touch that same object and touch an area and trigger an outbreak????? I think the chances for this are very low. That would be kind of like becoming re-infected with herpes after touching something...which is not possible.

Take this with a grain of salt, I'm not a doctor, and I don't want to give you mis-information. Since you seem to have very specific questions, I'd suggest sitting down with a doctor and asking them these. Honestly though if you want my opinion, there is nothing to worry about here.

Answer:
You are not going to contract herpes from that guy or girl in your office who has the cold sore/fever blister!! Get over that thought, because it is that kind of ignorant thinking that causes social stigma. 60% of us have oral herpes- usually from childhood when your mother or father give you a night night kiss, or Aunt Sylvie kisses you when she arrives to visit from Ensenada or someplace. By the time we are in our fifties, 80-90% of have oral herpes.

As for the doctor who told you herpes could live under a fingernail for six months, please post his name. We'd all like to give him a call. The only way that happens is a herpes condition called Herpes Whitloe, a condition usually acquired when a guy fingers a girl with HSV-2 genital infection.

So, give your co-worker a break and some kind words. You're making your life and his/hers miserable with this kind of irrational thinking.

Answer:
Thank you Christie and Fastforward for your info.

It helps.

It just makes me wonder, cause I have had HSV-1 for about 13 years now and I havent gotten an outbreak for 2 years now. Is it because I have been more careful or not? I dont know.

I have noticed in the past several years that my outbreaks were normally from sun exposure.... I just would think you could get it from touching certain things, but I guess I was wrong based on your information.

Answer:
Your welcome! You probably have been experiencing fewer and fewer outbreaks because your body has built up enough antibodies to combat your HSV-1 virus so that it is not really a problem anymore. UV radiation, i.e. sun exposure has been said to trigger outbreaks, or reactivate the virus already in your system, not because you have been re-exposed to it. Please don't worry about getting it from touching things, it just isn't going to happen.

Answer:
YES you can get it not only with sexual contact.
I got it and I didn't know I have it so now my 2 years old son have it, my wife, my mother, my wife's parents, kids in the kindergarden, my friends... I don't know who brought it but I can tell you everybody has it. If they publish you can get it like this there will be a panic in the world.
You can recognise it by visual observation:
black spots on the body ( arms, back, chests, the legs, belly all over. Itching : chest, eyes, arms abdomen, hands, all over
eye burning, itching and redness
ear itching, sometimes pain in the ear
pain in the legs, back, arms, sometimes just in the finger of the leg
pain in the throat, teeth
often headaches
skin disorders, acne, dry skin parts, warts etc...
increasing ear wax, and greasy hair

Look closely to your friends and family you'll see. Lot of unknown symptoms, doctor will tell you it's not connected, you're old, but my 2yrs son is not old, so...
Look to the people in stores, banks on the customs, you'll see that majoritiy have it. If you see constant itching by someone, I assure you he (or she) has it.

The cure?
I tried everything on the net (coraphor, viraway, everclr, aciclovyr) nothin works as they say, but...
I finally found something tha actally WORKS. I don't know is it a cure but it helps. It's homeopatic like vaccine PHP HRPZ III formula
I take it now for two months and I had maybe one invisible outbreak (I felt it), before I had 3 a month, and it stopped over the night after first use. It costs only 35$ a bottle and it changed my life from almost suicidal to (let's say) normal.
CHEK IT OUT
www.biogetica.com (it's not a commercial this really works)
Now only thing that bothers me are blac spots and warts that are telling I have herpes and I see thenm on the people like x-ray, you can not hide it but I didn't try laser yet, I'll let you know

I was thinking why there is no cure for herpes, because herpes causes so many strange problems that we're spending a fortune to buy products to treat them.

Answer:
:? tomginc... Well I'm scratching my head after reading your post honey.. but I'm sure it's not because of my herpes.