Potential Roommate has herpes, should we be worried?
So, with one of our roommates moving out on shorter notice than we would have liked we were quick to hunt down a new roommate to move in come January. A female friend of mine has been eager to find a new place to stay and as she had a job we figured it was alright. I warned the remaining roommate that she had herpes and thought nothing of it. Another friend heard of this and proceeded to tell us about horror stories regarding the communicability of herpes. As I have a rather active sex life I certainly don't want to catch something because I sat on a toilet seat or used a towel that touched herpes sores.
However, I don't want to be a dick and refuse her should the risk be minimal.
So what do we have to worry about? What are our chances of catching this from a roommate? What are the possibilities? The worst case scenarios? Should we be worried or what?
Hope to hear back on this soon.
- Herpes Doctor - Public Forums:
Chances are almost ZERO
Hi MrPayne,
Does this potential roommate have genital herpes or oral herpes (cold sores?) Either way, there's almost NO chance you could get herpes from her unless you have skin to skin contact with her. If it's oral herpes, there could be some risk with sharing a cigarette/drink with her when she has an outbreak (but in that case, you would be able to see the actual outbreak).
If she has genital herpes, the risk is even lower. Unless her outbreak touches your skin, you're safe. I don't think any medical professional actually believes that it's possible for herpes to be transmitted via a toilet seat.
If you have an active sex life (or any sex life at all!), there's a considerably bigger chance that you'd get herpes from that than you ever would simply by living with someone who has herpes.
Hope this helps!
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