Is it true that, sitting on a public toilet, you can catch many diseases?

It is common that social toilets are a real nursery of all kinds of pathogens, including pathogens of diseases transmitted sexually. We decided to check if such fears are justified.

On the danger of public toilets write V Media, blogs, on sites With questions and answers and forums. On the Internet even You can find instructions It seems "how to go to a public toilet and not to catch an infection." On different resources Users DiscussHow to protect yourself when visiting such bathrooms - for example, cover the seat with toilet paper. Markets, In turn, Offer many options for disposable linings on toilet.

An important characteristic of any infection is the path of its transmission. All of them divided On artificial and natural. The first group includes transfusion (associated with blood transfusion) and injection paths, as well as transmission during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Obviously, no one conducts medical procedures in the public toilet and does not carry out medical injections (we will deal with injection drugs a little later). Natural paths, in turn, are divided into generic, horizontal and vertical. With the birth route of transmission, the infection is transmitted from the mother to the fetus during the passage of the birth canal. The vertical path of transmission of infection is still called transplacental, that is, the transmission comes from the mother to the fetus during pregnancy. This path also includes the transmission of infection to the child during breastfeeding. None of these two ways includes another carrier of infection, except for the mother of the unborn child. Only horizontal ones remain, which, in turn, are divided into five more species:

- transmissive;

-airborne droplets;

-fecal-oral;

- hemontact;

- Contact.

Let's figure it out in turn with each of them. Transmissible The path is such a path in which the pathogen enters the body through the bite of an insect or animal. The diseases in this way include malaria, denge, chikungunya, a disease caused by Zika virus, the fever of the Western Nile, Japanese encephalitis (in all cases, mosquitoes are carriers), tick -borne encephalitis (ticks are carriers). In general, the risk of being a bitten insect - a carrier of the disease is approximately the same for a person sitting on a public toilet and for a cafe sitting at a table. Therefore, to fear infection, for example, by malaria, it is while using a public toilet.

The second transmission path is airborne. This way Distributing Acute respiratory viral infections, influenza, Covid-19, chickenpox, scarlet fever, meningococcal infection, etc. At the same time, the risk of catching viral colds transmitted by airborne droplets depends not on the place, but on the number of people and the distance between them. For example, the influenza virus spreading during a cough and sneezing an infected person is easy overcomes Distance up to 1 m. The virus of the windsuor is even more “long -range” - it It spreads 20 m from an infected person. That is, in this case, a separate cabin of public toilet as a whole can even be safer than the bus, where passengers are not separated from each other by any partitions.

Another class of diseases is infections with a predominantly fecal-oral way of transmission, when the causative agent of the infection is mainly in the gastrointestinal tract, is released into the external environment with bowel movements and penetrates the new organism through the mouth. There are three types of the fecal-oral transmission route: water (for example, when bathing in an infected enterovirus infection with a reservoir of a person Maybe accidentally swallow a little water and get sick), alimentary (for example, eating products contaminated with bacteria of the genus Salmonella, Maybe To lead to a salmonelle) and, finally, a contact-household (extremely common in children-for example, when licking toys and sucking fingers). Obviously, since pathogens are released into the environment along with bowel movements, their concentration in the public toilet should be much higher than in any other place. That is why all of us from childhood are taught to wash our hands after going to the toilet, and in the case of a public toilet, do this especially carefully. However, sitting on a public toilet itself does not increase the risk of infection in any way, since to infect the body, pathogen needs to get into the mouth. Therefore, until you lick the public toilet and lick, but thoroughly washing your hands, the risk of picking up an infection with a fecal-oral way in the public toilet is almost the same as in other public spaces.

The fourth transmission path is hemontact (in the Russian tradition of it still called Parenteral, that is, intravenous), it involves contact with the blood of an infected person. Infection such as HIV, hepatitis B and C. For infection, it can be transmitted with a hem -context that it is necessary that the blood of the infected with the new carrier gets through damaged areas of the skin and mucous membranes. The infection can also be transmitted when using a non -disposable syringe between injecting drug consumers. It is important to remember that the HIV is transmitted with a hem -contact way only if there are damage to the skin, touching the blood of the intrained intact skin cover no There is no danger. It was also not recorded cases programs hepatitis In or with through seat toilet. And although there are no scientific facts that through the toilet seat you can get infected with hem-context infections, if it is flooded with blood, it is better not to sit on it.

The last type of transmission of infections horizontally is contact. In this case, pathogens are on the skin, mucous membranes, mouth or genitals and can fall on the skin or mucous membranes of another person directly (with handshakes, touches, kisses) or indirectly, through touching contaminated (that is, polluted pathogen) objects: to clothes, toys, door pens, handrails or, for example, to to The seat of a public toilet. Thus, scabies, pediculosis, genital herpes, various fungal infections (for example, lichen) and most infections transmitted sexually (IPPs are also called sexually transmitted diseases): syphilis, fees, trichomoniasis, HPV, HIV, chlamydia, etc. are spread. 

However, not everything is so scary here. Scabies transmitted Through a long (15–20 minutes) contact “skin to the skin” and is almost not transmitted through general things. In 1940, in the UK was held experiment: 272 Volunteers slept in bed, in which before that the patient was lying with scabies, only four of them were infected as a result. Scientists converge in opinionthat the risk of gearing through public items, including the toilet seat, although it is possible, is extremely unlikely. With a pediculus, a similar story is on a surface like a toilet seat, lice, carriers of the disease, they simply do not live. To transfer the pediculosis, also Required Long -term contact with the patient or the use of common hair care items, hats, and underwear. Risk infect Fungal diseases from the toilet seat are also extremely insignificant. In general, the disputes of the fungus can be on any objects (clothes, upholstered furniture, door handles, etc.), but most often fungi Distributing In pools, gym halls, saunas and beauty salons. Infected with genital herpes also almost impossible Through common items, with the exception of common sexual toys, since the virus quickly dies in the external environment. 

Things are in a similar way with the possibility of infection with sexually transmitted diseases through the toilet seat. HIV Not transmitted Neither through this, nor through other objects. It is absolutely safe to enter the booth after an HIV-positive person, just as drinking and is with him from the same dishes. Other SPPP Same Not transmitted through seat toilet. How Joking Ebigail Salires, president of the American Society of Microbiology: “As far as I know, no one has ever received a SPP for the toilet seat, unless you have sex there.” In a similar way expressed And the famous pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky: “Veneral diseases in the vast majority of cases are not on the toilet in the public toilet. They are in other places. Can I get infected? Well, theoretically, if you have a wound on your buttock, this wound will marry with dirty toilet, then you can earn an infection. But to imagine that you earned, sitting on the toilet, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia, is just a huge fairy tale! ”

According to data FILTREETED, which is analyzing sports simulators, when working with free weights in the public gym, a person is in contact with the number of bacteria, 362 times higher than that he interacts, sitting on a public toilet. 

Some people who are afraid to become infected with contact with the seat of a public toilet, prefer to “hang” over it instead, without touching the seats with buttocks. Doctors warnthat this approach is extremely incomplete. Muscle tension in this position can lead to incomplete emptying of the bladder, which, in turn, is fraught with an increase in the frequency and urgency of urination, and can also lead to a prolapse (protrusion) of the pelvic organs.

At the same time, the seat itself is often not the dirtiest part of the toilet. When washing with a microbe lid open Distributing And they settled around - on the floor, doors, handle and paper holder. That is why Recommended Rinse only with a closed lid or leave the booth immediately after pressing the drain button, if the cover is not provided for the design.

Thus, the seat of a public toilet can be considered safe. It is impossible to infect neither IPPP, nor viral hepatitis, from a variety of intestinal infections, will easily protect his hands after visiting the toilet, and the risk that someone will sneeze in the toilet and infect you with SARS, approximately the same as the fact that this will happen in any other public place. In addition, hanging over the toilet is anatomically harmful and can lead to unpleasant health consequences. Therefore, if the seat of the public toilet is clean and dry, then you can safely sit on it.

Image on the cover: Image Victoria_watercolor from the site Pixabay

Not true

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