Can I get it? (possibly GRAPHIC)

[spilled_milk]

Warning: This could possibly be GRAPHIC!


Yesterday I went home from school with my friend Ashley. As we got in the car, her mom said that she had to go pick up Ashley's little brother up from school because he had just been sick! So when we got back to her house, I was panicking, especially when he came home and said **GRAPHIC** that he that v*d all over himself. **end graphic** I was panicking but was pretty sure i couldnt get it, because he hadnt touched anything but the doorknob, and I didnt touch that. Sadly, today Ashley didn't come in to school!!! Now I am really panicking, because I think she got the bug, and I have been spending a lot of time with her, and we touched each other's cheeks two days ago because we were making fish faces...dont ask. so now i think i am going to get it. I just got stomach cramps, but i think that it's because I'm nervous. do u think it's likely I'll get it??


<3 Anya--

[jazz]

not likely anya..you would probably have gotten it by now. ashley's little brother may have been sick because the milk on his cornflakes had gone off,not necessarily a bug.
AND, if it was a bug that her brother had,it doesn't necessarily mean she caught it!
anddd..she would have contracted that before seeing you...and seeing as you haven't been with her during the period she's been ill, it's unlikely you'll catch anything!

[rileyl]

Hi. I am a mom (not a doctor), but have some fairly extensiveexperience in dealing with the whole contagious issue with my kids. In my experience, a person is really only contagious when then are showing symptoms and for a few days AFTER.In other words, a person is contagious during the time they are actually v*g or have diarrhea and for about 3 days after they stop v*g etc.


The reason that I don't believe that people are terribly contagious BEFORE they start v*g is because once I was eating off the same plate as my daughter literally 5 minutes before she v*d. (I know she had a bug because she continued to v* for hours after that, and ran a fever. My poor baby!). I figured that I was doomed to get it too, but I did not.


Likewise, my son has only caught a stomach bug from his sister when I have allowed them to be in close contact within a day or so AFTER she has v*d. (He's only 8, and doesn't have the strict hygiene that I do.)


The same rules apply. Wash your hands and keep them away from you face, especially from your mouth. (Also, don't share food, drink etc. with a sick person; I don't anymore after my "close call.") Remember that the virus needs to be ingested (get inside your mouth/digestive tract). I am in close contact with my kids when they v*, and have not caught stomach bugs from them, so I believe these "rules" really work.

[justintd]

There's that, and asI touched on, there are the immuntiy and susceptability factors as well. As far as contagion range goes, typically you are correct, contagious from onset of symptoms to a little after end of symptoms, as their must be sufficient virii in the bodily fluid to transmit it, and it must be taken into the body. However, it is possible to be contagious for 2 weeks and more sometimes after symptoms have subsided. I used to be a police dispatcher before I became a firefighter/EMT, and a virus thats lasts about 3-4 days began circulating at the PD dispacth center. I called out for 2 1/2 weeks sick so I wouldn't catch it. Thank god for vacation pay.


Odds of you catching it without having direct contact the her saliva, stomach fluids or fecal matter are relativley slim. Especially if you watch your hands prior to touching your face (nose, mouth, eyes, ears especially), or other mucal membranes.