Herpes Cold Sore - from Face Painting?

Updated on April 06, 2012
S.G. asks from Charles Town, WV
4 answers

A friend of mine got her daughter's face painted and then a few days later she broke out on her face with Herpes as diagnosed by the doctor. It looks very bad is very contagious and takes a few weeks to go away so she is unable to attend school and is stuck at home. She can also get outbreaks for the rest of her life. My friend thinks she got the Herpes when she got her face painted but obviously can't know for sure if that caused it. However you can get Herpes from sharing makeup so why couldn't you get Herpes from face painting? I never thought about that when getting my kids face painted. Have you ever thought about that and noticed face painters using new brushes and paint for every child?

Just wanted to warn you all about this.

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So What Happened?

To answer Momma L's post, she must have not read that article she posted. As the article states that there are 2 kinds of Herpes, one that is STD (sexually transmitted disease) and one that are on the face - cold sores that aren't an STD. However, both you live with for the rest of your life. If you are lucky you won't have another outbreak but you can also continually have outbreaks especially when you are under a lot of stress. Also, when you have an outbreak it is extremely contagious. Please read the article before you post an article and contradict what the article states.

More Answers

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T.B.

answers from Miami on

I honestly do not know how soon one can get herpes (an outbreak, I mean) once it is contracted but yes, you can get herpes and any other contagious infection from face painting, or anything else that one comes in contact with an infected object or person. I'm very surprised in this day and age that the person doing the face painting did not use new/fresh instruments for each person. Very surprising. When our church does face painting for our annual Harvest Festival, the person doing the face painting uses Q-tips and discards the used ones right away. It's very unfortunate if this is how the child contracted such an infectious disease.

3 moms found this helpful

G.T.

answers from Redding on

Unless they use new applicators and fresh paint with each new person to be painted, then yep I'm sure the germ can spread.
I never got my kids facepainted due to just that. I've seen them use new brushes but never new paints.
Good post, gonna make a lot of people aware from now on.

Updated

Unless they use new applicators and fresh paint with each new person to be painted, then yep I'm sure the germ can spread.
I never got my kids facepainted due to just that. I've seen them use new brushes but never new paints.
Good post, gonna make a lot of people aware from now on.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.B.

answers from Atlanta on

My husband and I both get cold sores, and I am a FREAK about throwing out anything either of us have used when having one, getting one -or else I scald it and sanitize it with rubbing alcohol. I have no doubt you could pick it up from a face-painting sponge.

I watched a woman paint my sons' face at a birthday about a month ago and felt skeezed out because I realized she was using the exact same DAMP sponges and brushes that she had been using on about 22 other kids before him. EWWWWWWW! Talk about a great way to spread germs! I would advise taking your own sponges at least if you have a kid who loves getting his or her face painted. It makes me happy that my oldest hates it and my youngest is usually ambivalent.

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