STIs can be transmitted when body fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk are passed from an infected person to an uninfected person.
Infections transmitted by fluids, such as HIV, hepatitis B, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, are completely preventable by proper condom use.
In the case of herpes and genital warts that are transmitted through direct skin-to-skin contact, although condoms are very effective, they will not 100% prevent the transmission of the virus as the infected skin may not be covered with condoms and may be exposed to another person’s skin. Some of these germs can enter the body in other ways. For example, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV viruses found in the blood of an infected person can be transmitted through the transfusion of unscreened blood, injections with shared devices, shared use of bloody sharp devices such as razor blades, or from a woman to her baby during pregnancy or delivery. In addition, hepatitis B and HIV viruses are also found in breast milk so a baby may become infected during breastfeeding.
Public toilets do not transmit STDs.