You really need some direct contact with the area that is shedding the virus and that's a small area since herpes is not a systemic infection. It's a localized infection that may only be contagious a couple days a year if it's a mature case.

Besides that, if you are touching with normal skin rather than mucous membranes like in the genital area or the mouth, regular intact skin is a very good barrier to most pathogens like the herpes virus.

Did you know that, in the case of genital herpes where the infected party is female and the uninfected is the male that the risk of transmission **over a year's time** is slightly less than 4% if the only precaution is to avoid risky direct genital contact when symptoms are present? That's from the GSK study of almost 2000 subjects a couple years ago.

Toilet seat? forget about it. There has never been a documented case of transmission in that way. The herpes virus is very vulnerable outside the host body. If it dries, it dies.

Hope this helps.