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Like can you get it from public restrooms, door knobs, shaking hands, mosquitos, blood/semen stains, or anything like that?

2007-11-06 11:08:27 · 6 answers · asked by Connor 1 in Health Diseases & Conditions STDs

6 answers

No.

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

Also, you can NOT get HIV from a mosquito bite.

The results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior indicate that when an insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten person's or animal's blood into the next person bitten. Rather, it injects saliva, which acts as a lubricant so the insect can feed efficiently. Diseases such as yellow fever and malaria are transmitted through the saliva of specific species of mosquitoes. However, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect and, unlike organisms that are transmitted via insect bites, HIV does not reproduce (and does not survive) in insects. Thus, even if the virus enters a mosquito or another insect, the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the next human it bites.
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/transmission.htm

2007-11-07 07:22:17 · answer #1 · answered by Alli 7 · 0 0

It is theoretically possible to get it from a mosquito, though I don't know of any reported cases where that has been suspected.

No known cases have come from doorknobs or toilet seats. There needs to be some way to get the virus into the blood stream, and that is quite unlikely to happen casually. If someone cut themself on a bit of glass, and you did the same immediately after, that could do it. If they touched a doorknob with open bleeding wounds, and left blood all over the handle, and you had open sores as well, and then grasped the handle, there is a possibility for you to get the virus, but even then, it isn't likely.

It's a fragile virus in the environment. It requires intimate contact to be passed. It just doesn't happen with sneezes or casual contact.

2007-11-06 11:43:35 · answer #2 · answered by Deirdre H 7 · 0 1

You cannot get HIV from public restrooms, shaking hands, or any of that. HIV is transmitted via sex, sharing dirty needles, any type of exchange of blood or bodily fluids. Basically follow this rule of thumb- if it's wet and nasty and doesn't belong to you, don't touch it. Also be smart, if someone offered me their hand and I saw a bunch of open sores or something like that where it is possible to exchange fluids, heck no I wouldn't be shaking it.

2007-11-06 12:11:11 · answer #3 · answered by dynamite2006 2 · 0 0

It would take direct exposure to infected body fluid and it would have to get inside a cut or opening on you. Nothing you are describing would be a worry. Even the blood/semen satins, if they were stains, would be dry and no threat.

2007-11-06 11:13:31 · answer #4 · answered by Scooter 4 · 0 0

HIV is a relatively fragile virus and does not survive long in the environment. You are much more likely to catch HBV in this manner.

However you could get HIV from the environment if you were to sustain a needle-stick injury, for instance.

2007-11-06 11:13:09 · answer #5 · answered by Orinoco 7 · 0 0

yes, if HIV infected fluid comes in contact with a cut or a sore you can contract it. Especially in public restrooms where persons of a certain sexual orientation (which shall remain nameless) congregate for anonymous bathrooms sex.

2007-11-06 11:17:18 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0 2

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