Question: Hi Dr,



How are you going?

I have a few questions about dry skin from pubic hair. If dry/flakey skin from pubic hair falls on everyday objects such as plastic wrapped around chocolate, what is the likelihood of those germs contaminating and causing harm to everyday objects such as laptop, door handles etc if I've forgotten to wash my hands after touching dry skin that fell on my chocolate wrapper from my pubic hair? Will it spread and become contagious to inanimate objects which people touch everyday?



Thank you for your help!!

Hi Dr Albana,

I just wanted to clarify my situation.

I live in a small apartment, therefore I have to leave my groceries in my room. I was changing my undies and pulled it down to my knees and I forgot that I was directly above the chocolate wrapped in plastic which was unintentional. I was wondering if those germs from pubic region which I noticed to appear like little white dots have a chance to survive on plastic and spread to everyday objects which I touched after such as the door handle, laptop or stationery if I have forgotten to wash my hands afterwards

Thank you for your help

I'm assuming the white dots are dried skin, what if the situation was reversed and it was dried discharge? How likely is those germs going to affect the health of others? Are they contagious ? Will those germs harbour of inanimate objects ?
I don't think I have pubic lice, I haven't experienced any itching but I'm unsure what it was

Hi Dr Albana,

Could you please clarify this a little more for me?
If dried discharge falls on plastic which I touch, then I touch other inanimate objects straight after such as door handles, laptops etc, germs/bacteria from dried discharge is harmful?

What do you mean by there is a risk to get contaminated from environmental microbes?

Thanks again!

Will those germs from dried discharge specs(small white dots) be able to survive on inanimate objects which I touched straight after if I've forgotten to wash my hands after contact with the plastic)

whats is the likelihood of the spread of germ and getting sick?? is it harmful? what germs are present?

Hi Dr Albana,

Thanks for your reply, hope you're having a good day!
I just wanted to know whether dried discharge specs can transmit germs to objects such as pens, laptops, door handles, cardboard which I handled straight after and how long would you estimate for those germs to live for? What environment will they need to grow in?
What's more harmful dried discharge specs or ecoli? Does the genital region contain harmful ratios of coliform bacteria? How likely would dried discharge contain coliform bacteria?

So essentially you are saying e-coli from trolleys are transferred to the products we purchased everyday? What about if we purchased chip packets? If we handled the trolley, then picked up some chips and put that in our pantry, the next time we washed our hands and picked up the chip packet, wouldn't we be recontaminating ourselves with e.coli?

So people who are shop are essentially also spreading their genitalia germs around, isn't likely we can contaminate the products we purchased if they went to a self service checkout? Should I be sterilising non-perishable food products I brought or stationery? Wouldn't their germs be easily transferred to my products?

Hi Dr Albana,

That's okay, no worries
I really appreciate your response :)

Will there be a chance that the dry discharge can cause us to become sick or a disease?
How long will you estimate it survives for on inanimate objects?
If I pick up let's say a pen/stationery items/touch a doorknob which was touched after touching that plastic with dry discharge, maybe a few minutes later, what is the likelihood of those discharge germs being present? If I touch something else afterwards, will I be recontaminating objects with dry discharge germs?
IS that the same thing when someone goes shopping without washing their hands after the toilet and proceeds to the checkout to purchase their items. Will they transfer the genitalia germs to the products we purchase? wouldn't I be recontaminating myself with germs from the person's genitalia or from the register? Isn't that how germs are transmitted?

Thank you for your response

Hi Dr Albana
If I've touched a door knob or pen after touching dry discharge on plastic, then I retouch those objects again 10 seconds later, will I be picking up dry discharge germs? Would I be contaminating other surfaces i touch with dry discharge germs throughout the day? Will those germs from dry discharge die straight away once they reach a pen or door knob because the temperature of these items is not efficient enough for them to survive? But once I touch the pen or door knob again, will I be harbouring dry discharge germs again because the temperature of our bodies? Thank you
Or once dry discharge from our hands come in contact with inanimate objects, the dry discharge would have died therefore even if we touch those objects again a few seconds later, we wouldn't be picking up dry discharge germs from that particular object because they are dead? But if we touch these inanimate objects that had dry discharge on it which had previously died, wouldn't the dry discharge germs become alive again on our hands because of our warm temperature on our hands? What if I had dry discharge hands and touched a pen which I held for the entire time until someone wanted to borrow it, would the dry discharge germs immediately die coming in contact with a pen or Will they still be kept alive because of the warm body contact of the other person who held the pen? How are the dry discharge germs suppose to die now? Wouldn't it become a continuous cycle of touching objects and having dead dry discharge cells and contaminating other objects which you touch because of your body temp? How do we break the cycle?

Is it kind of expected that items we buy from shops may not be as clean as we thought, especially when we use self service registers where people do not wash their hands after coming from the toilet and purchase items. The germs they spread at the register, wouldn't they be picked up by us because of our warm body temperature and onto our items the next time we use them? Or will those genitalia germs die when in contact with plastic, cardboard etc and have no chance of surviving on our hands the next time we pick up the item because the germs have died and will not survive on our hands?

What about studies where people have found e.coli on credit cards? Does that mean every time they purchase an item or touch something such as inanimate objects, they are spreading e coli around while shopping and other household products? Does that mean their hands are contaminated with e coli every time they come in contact with objects?

Really sorry for all these questions, I'm having anxiety attacks worrying and would really appreciate your help !!