Thanks for your reply Terri. I’m still getting a great deal of anxiety about this as my in-laws live with me and use these dishes and they are too old so I don’t want them to catch this and possibly pass it on to my kids in the future.

Also I wasn’t around whenever they turned the dishwasher on, so I worry if they took it out and washed it by hand by any chance. 

I had washed it by hand using dishwashing liquid (without sponge) before putting it in the dishwasher though. 

But I’m extremely tensed about whether that was sufficient or not.

So here are my follow up questions:

1) When you say wash it with regular soap and water, do you mean hand soap (which I believe is more effective) or dishwashing liquid soap? 

2) If I washed it using just dishwashing liquid using just my hands (no sponge), would that clean the plate enough to remove the the risk of HSV-1 transmission completely to zero risk?

3) Does it need to be an anti-bacterial dishwashing liquid?

4) Does washing it in the dishwasher reduce the risk more than washing it by hand? If yes, is there any specific reason?

5) Does washing it in the dishwasher remove the HSV-1 transmission risk completely to zero risk?

6) If I am still really scared and paranoid, and want to disinfect those dishes, can you please let me know the best way to disinfect them? Should I use bleach, is that safe? Or boiling water?

Thank you so much for your help. I really want my in-laws and family to be safe and it's causing me a great deal of stress and anxiety.

Before I answer these questions, I think you are WAAAAY overestimating the contagiousness of HSV through non-sexual or oral means.

1) When you say wash it with regular soap and water, do you mean hand soap (which I believe is more effective) or dishwashing liquid soap?

Either!

2) If I washed it using just dishwashing liquid using just my hands (no sponge), would that clean the plate enough to remove the the risk of HSV-1 transmission completely to zero risk?

Yes!

3) Does it need to be an anti-bacterial dishwashing liquid?

NO!

4) Does washing it in the dishwasher reduce the risk more than washing it by hand? If yes, is there any specific reason?

No, any kind of soap destroys the virus

5) Does washing it in the dishwasher remove the HSV-1 transmission risk completely to zero risk?

Absolutely

6) If I am still really scared and paranoid, and want to disinfect those dishes, can you please let me know the best way to disinfect them? Should I use bleach, is that safe? Or boiling water?

I am not even going to answer this because it is way out of the range of possibility.  Either handwashing or dishwashing is more than adequate.

Terri

Hi Terri, thank you again for answering my questions. 

So since I hand washed the dish, I don’t have to worry about even the slightest risk to my in-laws, right? 

I know it might seem a bit excessive but there is surprisingly little to no information about this online. There is literally no website that confirms that just regularly hand-washing a dish/utensils/cups with any dishwashing liquid completely removes the HSV-1 virus to 0% risk - thank you for providing me with that confirmation!

There is only one New Zealand website that says you can wash it with soap and water, but doesn’t confirm if that removes the HSV-1 virus fully. Maybe it’s common knowledge but I have never known anyone with herpes so this is still brand new to me. 

Also I read a thread on this forum where a woman said that sharing a straw with her 2 year old daughter gave her oral herpes, as she has been tested negative several times before that. So makes me more concerned about non-sexual/non-oral exposure.

Nevertheless, I really appreciate you and the team of doctors helping myself and others through this. 

Unless you have any additional advice for me, I have no more questions other than the one reconfirmation above. Thank you again.