Community living contagious disease warning.

[SundayAfternoon]

Am just back from am organic farm in Northern Thailand, where I spent a week eating and drinking from communal cutlery. We each washed our dishes and utensils in cold water, stacked & drained, and air died until next use. All very lovely, communal and pretty rustic. But here's the rub...

This morning I've woken up with a very painful spot on my lip and I feel exhausted. I'm suspecting a cold sore (herpes) which Google informs me CAN be spread by sharing utensils (is not just body contact our saliva).

I should have known better, as a while ago, in a similar communal situation at a 'wat' doing a meditation retreat, I got pink eye! But I just didn't think.

I'm pretty angry at myself for having caught this (not deadly serious but lifelong) virus and in hindsight I wouldn't have gone if I'd have known this would be the outcome! But it must happen all the time at these places!

I can trace the infections down in both cases to the long term Thsi residents, NOT the visiting foreigners.

Why don't people take precautions and at least wash up in hot water!? Why don't the people who carry these infections take more care? They must be aware that they have them! And they're spreading then to every visitor who passes through!

Take care in thailand folks. You might just leave your meditation retreat or homestay with more than you bargained for!

[canman]

If it is a cold sore you could have (and odds are you have) been carrying the virus for years without knowing it. Most of the adult population carry the cold sore virus. Some lack a particular protein and are prone to frequent outbreaks. Others may never have an outbreak and some will only get the occasional outbreak as a reaction to stress, too much sun or other illness.

90% of the adult population have the HSV-1 virus hiding there in nerve cells.

[Sheryl]

If it is a cold sore you could have (and odds are you have) been carrying the virus for years without knowing it. Most of the adult population carry the cold sore virus. Some lack a particular protein and are prone to frequent outbreaks. Others may never have an outbreak and some will only get the occasional outbreak as a reaction to stress, too much sun or other illness.

90% of the adult population have the HSV-1 virus hiding there in nerve cells.

Correct. And it is not likely you would be able to contact it from utensils washed and dried in the manner you describe, even in the unlikely event you did not already harbor the virus.

More likely you are a bit run down/tired and this caused the eruption, and that you contacted the virus itself way back in childhood as most people do.

(pink eye, on the other hand, is indeed easily spread in communal living situations).

[infinity11]

I basically stopped eating with thais.

Its lovely the group eating, the food, the people but after getting sick the last time i decided i would rather not be a part of germs spreading thing

i guess they are used to it or they all get sick at once.

BTW why are they so scared of the rain, it does not make me sick.

[SundayAfternoon]

Ha. But I'm more relaxed than I've ever been before... and I have been through some pretty serious periods of stress...! So I'm afraid your theory doesn't stack up AT ALL!

I've just spent the last week with someone running a course with an open sore on their lip. Had I have thought about it or what it was I might have tried to avoid it more carefully (is that possible?) However it never crossed my mind.

I've never had this before, and Google says when you first contract it you feel tired, sore throat, etc. because you've just contacted a virus your body hasn't had before, so symptoms are worse. Yes yes and yes to the tiredness, sore throat and other symptoms.

I can't accept your assessment. It's just too coincidental that I get it NOW!