Can Hepatitis Be Contracted If One Shares Utensils In A Public Place?

Question : Hi!

Is there any danger in sharing utensils in a public place? In this case I grab coffee from a self serve bar where there is one container for "clean spoons" and another for "dirty spoons". I wasn't paying attention and may have grabbed a "dirty spoon" to stir my coffee. My fear (my germophobia getting the best of me again) is what if someone with hepatitis or some other virus had put that spoon into their mouth before placing it in the container that I removed it from and stirred my coffee with.

Hi,

Thank you for the opportunity to follow up. With this fear of germs and viruses I encounter things like this daily. Things like buying a soda and seeing the cashier grab the can from the top (where I drink from) bother me. Thinking that I may have shared a utensil with someone bothers me. In the case of the "dirty spoon" i'm worrying about something microscopic and I read that Hepatitis is sometimes found in saliva. I am in therapy for health phobias but we talk more about the way it all started than we do about the rational reasons for me not to be afraid.

My follow up question here is "where do I draw the line?" The site of blood greatly disturbs me. I read somewhere that if I'm not having unprotected sex or injecting drugs I should not be worried about any of these viruses. Catching a cold doesn't scare me but these "theoretical" risk that I come up with in my head are almost always related to someone touching my food, or touching the surface of something I'm drinking from, or the shared utensil. Even at this moment my mind is arguing with me that someone with hepatitis could have put that spoon in their mouth and some microscopic amount of saliva could have gotten into my cup of coffee. The coffee wasn't very hot.

I assure you that I am a rational person with irrational phobias. Thank you for any suggestions you have concerning "where to draw the line" and about the "dirty" spoon in my coffee cup. I appreciate you.

Thank you for the reassurance. Im doing my best to stop worrying. I'd like to ask one last thing before moving on. I appreciate your patience.

One reason I have fears of shaking hands, using ink pens other people touch, is because the skin on my fingers frequently cracks. I think maybe it is psoriasis. My skin cracks open and I can see through a layer of skin. No bleeding though. Are those cracks in my skin and entry point for germs are viruses or would it have to be a deep bleeding cut?

You are correct. This is making my life more difficult. It's hard to get through my day thinking that germs and viruses may be getting into my body through these cracks in my skin.

That is all of the questions i have. Thank you very much for helping me.

Thank you for being kind and also for the information. This helps me tremendously.
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