I seem to understand that high risk HPV spreads skin-to-skin. Can someone be more specific please????

Does it mean skin to genital? Hand to hand?

If I touch the genitals of someone with HR HPV how long does the darn HPV virus last? One second? One minute? One hour? Until I wash my hand?

If I have someone else's HPV on my hand and after 1 minute I decide to touch my genitals, will I get infected? And where exactly on my genitals? Where it is wet?

Does it run (like sperms) on wet surfaces?

What kills it? (heat, soap, shampoo, whipping cream?)


In the case of HIV, I seem to understand that the virus is very short lived and it dies after a couple of seconds of contact with air. How about HPV?

Somebody must have an answer to this.

I have not been intimate since I found out I have HR HPV.

I am even afraid that my partner would touch my hairy part of the genitals and spread his HPV back to me (I know, Low risk of ping-pong between same partners- still it is not NO risk).

Can someone give me any answer to the above question?

Hi there,

I dont know of anyone who would recommend a couple with HPV not have sex. Skin-to-skin here means genital to genital contact, vaginal and anal sex, and probably to a lesser extent oral sex. Don't worry about hand contact; in theory there is some risk here, but it's not well-documented and in an adult couple with HPV is not anything to worry about. This usually come up within the context of childcare (changing diapers, etc.) with warts on the hand, and some experts speculate even "genital" HPV types might be transmitted this way (it wouldn't be common, though).

There have been some small studies that suggest couples who use condoms clear HPV a bit more quickly than those that don't, but it isn't known why (and most all the couples eventually cleared regardless).

I know this is confusing. Sorry we missed your first question, but post anytime.

Best,
Fredo

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ASHA Moderator

Thanks Fredo. Do you know what kills the virus? (as in my first questions above?

Heya Hope! Let me make use of my horribly boring medical school education and perhaps shed light on what kills HPV.

From what I learned in Microbiology, most bacterium/viruses that can be classed as STDs are killed by two things: dryness and cold. Let's get even more boring: bacterium/virus STDs are often very fragile critters. Tough bacterium often have an outer layer of protection, a capsule, that shields them from the environment. Contrary to bacterium, viruses come in enveloped and non-enveloped forms---tough viruses are actually naked.

STD critters either are capsule-less bacterium or enveloped (delicate) viruses. Both are susceptible to drying and cold, and the outside in general. They just don't last very long in the elements. So anything you could think of probably will kill them: conventional soap, steam/heat, disinfectants...I don't know about whipped cream, but probably

HIV is the epitome of fragile: for all the viciousness that it is in the body, as you said it dies in seconds outside of it. Not sure if the other STD bugs are this wimpy, but they're much more delicate than non-STD critters.