Have you ever found yourself in the following situation?
You feel like your bladder is about to burst. You rush into the nearest public toilet and plonk yourself down for some much-needed relief/release... and you realise the toilet seat has splashes of another person's urine. Ewww!
After the initial gross factor comes the panic factor -- will you get some horrific and incurable disease? Herpes? Crabs? Chlamydia? AIDS? Or worse?
Here's the very worst that can happen to you if you sit on someone else's pee
A wet bum. Yes, that's right!
Microbiologist Philip M. Tierno, Jr., a professor of microbiology and pathology at NYU School of Medicine explains in a Fox News Health report that urine -- even someone else's -- won't do anything to you, even if you were to touch it and then touch your face.
This is because urine usually does not carry deadly microbes. Certainly, touching bathroom surfaces can lead to you getting a cold, the flu or staph or strep infection.
But according to Tierno, “that risk can be reduced or eliminated by properly washing your hands with soap and water after using the facilities.”
And as for those STDs and creepy crawlies you were panicking about -- stop right now!
"The AIDS virus is contracted primarily via blood to blood or intimate sexual contact—not from urine," Tierno said.
Moving on to chlamydia and herpes: the former remains deep in a woman's cervix and similarly, the herpes virus flourishes inside cells. Neither can survive for long outside the body.
Next up -- crabs and syphilis. Both are transmitted through intimate sexual contact. Moreover (and quite disgustingly) crabs don't have proper "feet" that can hold on to or walk on smooth surfaces such as a toilet seat.
What's more, all of these organisms are quite fragile and would not survive outside a human host for long.
"Different microbes have different abilities for survival," Tierno said. "Viruses die fastest, and some bacteria last minutes to hours."
So ladies, except for the obvious disgust factor, there really is no need to be alarmed from a health point-of-view if you sit on someone else pee by some unfortunate chance.
Still, I'm not going to stop carrying tissues, wet wipes and sanitiser with me when I need to pay a visit to a public toilet!
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