This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at PS Behrend chapter.

“Can I take a swig of that?” -Random guy at a party

“Can I hit your Juul?” –Nicotine-addicted eighteen-year-old at a party

Sharing drinks and vapes have become extremely common at parties. We’ve all been guilty of seeing an interesting drink and asking “Ooohh, that looks good! Can I try?” The problem with this is that many diseases and illnesses are spread from saliva and a vape or the rim of a cup can easily carry the fun stuff that comes with it.

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There are plenty of diseases that can be caught through saliva but we’ll just go over more common, well-known ones. Below are the some of the most common illnesses you can contract from sharing saliva:

Rhinovirus (colds)
The Flu
Strep Throat
Mumps
Mononucleosis (Mono)
Herpes Simplex (Cold Sores)

On the bright side, HIV is NOT transmittable through saliva.

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Moral of the story is: even though you think that your friend or random stranger looks clean, do NOT share drinks or your vape with them, because many people have these diseases/illnesses and most of the time they aren’t even aware of it themselves (or are too careless to tell someone that they’re the host of an infection).

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Sources:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-p-connelly-dds/sharing-drinks-healthy_b_3241147.html

https://www.cdc.gov/actagainstaids/basics/transmission.html

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/does-saliva-have-health-risks-3-ways-germs-can-spread/