This is one of the unusual scenarios raised by Person 1 on Reddit.

The original post: I have high anxiety and I am teen help me last night my friend have sex with sex worker and after we left from there 15 minutes later he touched my nose and poured beer for all my friends help me is there any risk.

Person 2 and Person 3 replied that Person 1 has nothing to worry about. They laughed and made jokes about this scenario.

Person 1: Why help me more!

Person 4: There is nothing to laugh about here. A scenario like this may cause significant anxiety. The best way to help with this anxiety is to provide a good fact-based explanation.

First, let us lay out the facts:
  • Two male friends went out.
  • One of them had sex with a prostitute. He used a condom.
  • 15 minutes later, while frolicking the friend who had sex with the sex worker accidentally touched the nose of the other friend. He, possibly, touched it with the hand he used to remove the condom. (This is the first hypothetical STD transmission issue – hand used for removing the condom touched the nose of another person)
  • Immediately after, the friend who had sex with the prostitute poured beer to his friend and the others, touching the beer glasses with the hand he used to remove the condom after sex. (This is the second hypothetical STD transmission issue – hand used for removing the condom touched the beer glass)

Person 4 responded:

  1. Virtually ZERO risk.

  2. Your nose and his hand were not damaged. Transmission via unbroken skin is VERY VERY VERY unlikely. It had to be a bleeding finger going into your nose to start thinking about something bad. So, not to worry here.

  3. Pouring beer – non-issue. There is no transmission route there.

  4. ’15 minutes’ later is the key. The incubation period for any STD is days and weeks. Even if he had all known STDs from that sex worker – there was not enough time to develop in his body to pass to yours.

Please, be well – you have nothing to worry about.

More about transmission routes here www.iamfkd.com.au

Person 1: Thank you but what I want to say is while taking the condom off my friend might have got the virus on his hand and when he touched me could he pass
Person 4: There is simply not enough ‘viral material’. All is well.

Person 1: I am sorry but can I ask what if he had the virus on his hand and pass it to the glass and I drink from it

Person 4: The chance of catching anything that way is minuscule – virtually zero.

There are so many defence mechanisms on the way of the virus that the chance is virtually zero.

The viral environment material is simply not big enough. In other words you should have seen some slime from the sex workers vagina on your glass to get it.

Then exposure to light, exposure to air, your saliva, then dilution with alcohol, then your gastric juices.

Besides what can be transmitted via glass? The answer is here.

If your scenario was a real risk – half of the population of the world would perish by now. And another half would walk around with syphilis, HPV, Hep B etc.

Very very unlikely. Viruses and bacteria live on the surface of the skin for a very limited period of time. Besides, any environmental exposure (e.g. open air) kills most of it.

Theoretically, in order to pass an STD hand to the skin (of your nose in this case), he had to have a lump of mucose from the sex worker’s vagina stuck to his hand and be carefully carried around. Please, leave your anxiety behind.

Thank you so much my anxiety hunts me always suppressed, there is a chance of transmission to the partner.