how long can the hiv virus survive outside of the body like on a toilet seat etc?

Answer 1

HIV can not survive on a toilet seat. In fact, NO STDs can survive on toilet seats except pubic lice (crabs). Pubic lice may be transmitted by an infested toilet seat. However, lice cannot survive away from the human body for longer than 24 hours. So contracting pubic lice from a toilet seat is possible, but it's unlikely.

According to the CDC, "Scientists and medical authorities agree that HIV does not survive well outside the body, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote. HIV is found in varying concentrations or amounts in blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, saliva, and tears. To obtain data on the survival of HIV, laboratory studies have required the use of artificially high concentrations of laboratory-grown virus. Although these unnatural concentrations of HIV can be kept alive for days or even weeks under precisely controlled and limited laboratory conditions, CDC studies have shown that drying of even these high concentrations of HIV reduces the amount of infectious virus by 90 to 99 percent within several hours. Since the HIV concentrations used in laboratory studies are much higher than those actually found in blood or other specimens, drying of HIV-infected human blood or other body fluids reduces the theoretical risk of environmental transmission to that which has been observed - essentially zero. Incorrect interpretations of conclusions drawn from laboratory studies have in some instances caused unnecessary alarm."
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/qa/qa35.htm

Answer 2

I'm afraid no-one knows for sure how long the virus lives outside the body, it's true that it doesn't manage very well but it doesn't die immediately. It is likely to survive a few hours depending on how much bodily fluid there is. It does not die after a few seconds, like many people think.
I notice that a lot of people say air kills the virus, which isn't strictly true. It's the air that dries the fluid up - which then kills the virus. The virus can survive for as long as the fluid is wet.
There isn't much chance of you contracting HIV from a toilet seat, unless a person before you has left a large amount of fluid actually on the seat - which is unlikely.
Besides it is quite a difficult virus to catch, Hepatitis is actually over 100 times more contagious than HIV, and can be contracted from amounts of fluid that a lot smaller than needed to get HIV.
It is a well documented fact that you can not contract HIV through normal everyday activities such as:

*From toilet seats
*Sharing eating/drinking utensils
*Sharing bedding
*Sharing towels

Answer 3

unless someone unloads a 'load' or actually pees or bleeds on the seat,and then you sit in it and have a cut or sore on your bottom you cant get hiv from a toilet... o.0 not sure about other stuff and how long a virus would live though...

Answer 4

Who knows for sure? Don't take any chances. Wipe the seat off and try not to touch the seat with your skin. Either use a seat cover when provided or put stripes of toilet paper on the seat where you would touch. Some people can pee without sitting down.
My neighbor takes a can of Lysol spray everywhere she goes. And she uses it too.

Answer 5

The virus dies as soon as it hits the air and is out side of the hosts body. The host is the human- it lives off of the human to survive. That is why viruses can be only spread by human to human contact.

Answer 6

The hiv viruse does not survive outside of the body for more than mere seconds.

Answer 7

You can't get HIV from a toilet seat....
UNLESS it is totally wet with bloody fluid on the seat and your butt is covered with open wounds................
It isn't that easy to transmit HIV, it is harder than hepatitis....
So anyway, put your toilet seat fears to rest.....not possible

Answer 8

well if you cant isolate or purify the HIV virus. which no one has done . i don't think anyone could tell you how long it will live. kind of hard to study something accurately you cant isolate. hypothetically speaking which is what HIV is based on , dies on contact with air. for such a wicked ,wily , hiding , constantly mutating virus. i would say it is rather weak . you would think such a cunning , mutating disease that supposedly mutates to survive all of our hypersonic DNA chain terminating meds, could maybe just mutate once to live in the air . oh that's to complicated. its easier to outwit a constant changing onslaught of drugs

Answer 9

7 seconds

Answer 10

i don't have an idea.
all i know is it's the dread of all, i guess.