# Can you get HIV from having a bodily fluid touch a bedsheet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2011, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575 "2011-03-22T05:21:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/21 "2011-03-23T08:39:42Z")
> [@ineedhelp](#): > > Ok to put it blunt, if the penile secretion touched the bedsheet and the penis and the opening at the same time, can the virus be absorbed into the system through the penile secretion? This is confusing as heck. Sexual questions are asked here all the time. You can just ask in plain teenager language. How could a penile secretion _not_ touch the penis in the first place…? Are there two different sets of bodily fluids involved? Are you saying an HIV+ person ejaculated on a bedsheet, and then a day later you ejaculated on the same spot where he ejaculated and now you’re wondering if zombie HIV can travel up a dangling strand of cum and into your body…? That sounds ridiculous, but I can think of no other way to parse what you’re saying… ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/22 "2011-03-23T16:22:30Z")
That’s how I read it, too. I’d be curious to know what the real meaning was. (Um, **ineedhelp** , if that IS what you meant, then: no. No, you cannot get AIDS the way **Reply** described.) ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/23 "2011-03-23T16:43:25Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > It’s the sex part. Fluids from one body entering another body, and even in that case, it has to be semen, milk, blood, or lymph, and it has to enter the body through > … So you are claiming vaginal fluids can’t transmit AIDS? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/24 "2011-03-23T16:51:19Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > So you are claiming vaginal fluids can’t transmit AIDS? It’s at the very least extremely unlikely to do so. Last I checked the stats, lesbians who did not engage in IV drug use were the smallest of the infected categories. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/25 "2011-03-23T17:05:15Z")
> [@ineedhelp](#): > > Ok to put it blunt, if the penile secretion touched the bedsheet and the penis and the opening at the same time, can the virus be absorbed into the system through the penile secretion? I’m sorry, what? Did you stick your dick into a pool of jizz you found on your hotel sheets? Joe ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/26 "2011-03-23T17:21:57Z")
> [@ramel](#): > > At number two is being born to a HIV infected mother, with a 25% chance of passing infection to the baby. And that’s assuming she (the HIV+ mother) didn’t receive any treatment during her pregnancy. If we know she’s HIV+ and put her on the right kinds of medicine, the chance for transmission to her baby go way, way down - some sources say transmission from treated mother to fetus is as low as 2%. The more conservative ones say about 8%. Still, that’s a hell of a reduction in risk! That’s why, no matter how scared or in denial pregnant women are, we really really really want them to get an HIV test. It really does make a huge difference in transmission rates for the baby. > [@ineedhelp](#): > > Ok to put it blunt, if the penile secretion touched the bedsheet and the penis and the opening at the same time, can the virus be absorbed into the system through the penile secretion? I’m also having trouble parsing this, but it sounds like you’re worried that someone who is HIV+ ejaculated (“came”) on the bedsheets and then you slept on them the next night in your underwear. And you wonder if the HIV virus could have gotten through your underwear into your urethra (“pee-hole”) and infected you that way? The answer is no. You get infected through cuts, scrapes and other openings that bleed, not through a healthy, intact urethra. That’s why it’s harder, actually, for men to get HIV from women than for women to get HIV from men, and fairly easy for gay men who have anal sex to get it from each other. Penis in vagina sex and anal sex cause small tears in the vagina or anus, and the HIV infects through those tears. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/27 "2011-03-23T18:23:32Z")
HIV isn’t spread through casual contact. That includes touching things that might have come into contact with bodily fluids from an HIV-positive person. [HIV is not transmitted through bed sheets.](http://ehealthmd.com/library/aids/ads_spread.html) If it were, we’d have a lot more cases where people got HIV from family members. We don’t see that. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/28 "2011-03-23T19:48:45Z")
> [@ineedhelp](#): > > So testing done between now and 6 months from now will be totally ineffective? No, the testing will be an accurate reading of your body’s HIV status at that time. But a negative (no-HIV) result could mean that you have been infected with HIV, but your body is not showing signs of this infection yet. So you can’t be absolutely sure that you were not infected until you get a negative test result from a test taken 6 months later. Taking a test earlier than 6 months is still a good idea, because: - if the test is unfortunately positive, they can start treatment immediately (and the sooner they do so, the better for you). - if the test is negative, you can be at least partly relieved of your worries about this. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/29 "2011-03-23T23:24:28Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > So you are claiming vaginal fluids can’t transmit AIDS? Theoretically they can, if they enter the blood stream of the recipient, slightly more likely if the person who is HIV+ is on her period, with the presence of blood, but only slightly more. Evidently, although not too many people in the “They deserve it, because they sin.” camp of epidemiology have drawn the obvious conclusion. AIDS is God’s way of saying Lesbians are OK. Two of the many strains of HIV, mostly prevelent in Central, and Southern Africa seem to have much higher transmission rates among heterosexuals, especially higher than other strains among heterosexual women. The reasons are not entirely understood, and may be cultural, and reflect reluctance to accurately report sexual activity. However even these particular strains are not specifically more contagious, or robust in the face of normal hygine. Picking up reports of indivudual cases and deciding on risk factors based on them is fairly poor epidemiology. It’s not like the forty million known cases of transmission that are documented should be ignored, in favor of a priest who says, “I never had sex with that man!” Tris ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/30 "2011-03-24T13:27:28Z")
OP, where did you get the idea that you might be at risk for HIV from sleeping on dirty sheets? That’s an idea that’s been discredited by just about everybody who knows anything about HIV for the last 20 years, at least. I wouldn’t consider the source of that information to be a reliable source. I’d be rather skeptical of any future information I got from the same source, if I were you. If you thought up that idea on your own, do you have other worries about cleanliness, contamination, or germs, more than most people? If you do, it’s possible you might have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are treatable, and untreated anxiety disorders are not pleasant to live with. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/31 "2011-03-24T18:52:33Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > I’m sorry, what? Did you stick your dick into a pool of jizz you found on your hotel sheets? > > Joe 😃 I needed a laugh. ---
**Author:** ![mazdarx2001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce73a5/32.png) [@mazdarx2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazdarx2001)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/32 "2011-03-24T20:42:23Z")
If your body is exposed to the bodily fluids of an individual with HIV then yes. It is even more likely if the part of your body exposed to it were to have fluid (eyes, mouth, nose, or a cut finger) But more than likely, bodily fluids of an HIV patient on bed sheets would not be passed on to someone simply by touching them, unless you touched them with an open sore of your own or rubbed the sheets in your eye. ---
**Author:** ![ineedhelp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@ineedhelp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ineedhelp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/33 "2011-03-25T06:28:29Z")
OK in teenager language I fell asleep then the next morning I woke up with what seemed to be nocturnal emissions (might’ve happened less than 1 hour after waking up, I don’t really know how long it takes for semen to dry). My underwear was definitely moderately wet and it obviously touched the bedsheet. So I’m worried that my own semen can provide the mechanism for the bedsheet’s HIV to travel back up my urethra. On another note, if I have a cold sore inside my mouth and drank soda from the same fountain drink cup as someone else (who probably isn’t positive although such topics typically don’t offer themselves up for discussion), can I get it assuming he’s positive? Also it’s possible that I may have rubbed my eyes after waking up (to focus them). My ears and nose may also have touched the sheets while asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/34 "2011-03-25T06:54:16Z")
Ok. Thank you for clarifying. You can’t get HIV in any of those ways. HIV only lives outside the human body for a few minutes, so even if there was HIV on those sheets a day before you slept on them, it would all be dead and gone by the time you fell asleep. Also, HIV can’t move under its own power, so even if there was fresh HIV infected semen that you ejaculated on top of, the HIV couldn’t get up your uninfected semen into your body. As to your second scenario, even if you have a cold sore inside your mouth, you can’t get HIV from sharing a cup with somebody who’s HIV positive. Saliva doesn’t transmit HIV. The only fluids that can transmit HIV are semen, blood, vaginal secretions and breast milk. If you were to expose HIV to saliva, it would be destroyed in an instant. Between the enzymes and antibodies and all the other stuff that’s in saliva, HIV doesn’t stand a chance. As to your third question, even if your hand was covered with HIV infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluid and you rubbed your eye, your chance of catching HIV would be so small it would be almost nonexistent. In your case, though, there’s no risk at all, because remember, any HIV that had been on the bedsheet before would be long gone by now. If you’re worried, of course, you should get an HIV test, but you’ll be fine. Let me tell you, there are really only two ways you can get HIV nowadays, really. You either share needles with an HIV positive person, or you have unprotected sex without a condom with an HIV positive person. If you don’t do either of those two things, your chance of becoming HIV positive is next to nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/35 "2011-03-25T13:17:24Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Also, HIV can’t move under its own power, so even if there was fresh HIV infected semen that you ejaculated on top of, the HIV couldn’t get up your uninfected semen into your body. HIV does not travel up a stream of bodily fluids. You’re thinking of [candiru](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candiru). (And even they don’t actually do that) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/36 "2011-03-25T13:41:49Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > HIV does not travel up a stream of bodily fluids. You’re thinking of [candiru](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candiru). (And even they don’t actually do that) Oh, nice, **Anne**. Give the kid a new disease to be neurotic about, why dontcha?! 😃 **ineedhelp** , \*\*Captain Amazing \*\*is right. The very most important thing to understand in this situation is that HIV doesn’t swim. It can’t move on its own. It just floats in semen and blood and goes where the semen or blood goes. So if you have a tear in your butthole and someone shoots their cum into you, the HIV moves with the cum and maybe into that tear, and then your bloodstream carries it to your cells, because your blood is moving. But since your cum was going out, not in, there’s no way viruses could have moved against the stream and gotten into your penis. ---
**Author:** ![ineedhelp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@ineedhelp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ineedhelp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/37 "2011-03-25T14:31:47Z")
> [@](#): > > But since your cum was going out, not in, there’s no way viruses could have moved against the stream and gotten into your penis. It came out but it also stayed there for a while (since I didn’t notice until I had already awoken). If it stayed on the tip of the urethra for a while, there’s still no chance for upward suction? This is assuming the bedsheet even had HIV on them, right? I was given the bedsheets and obviously touched them as soon as they were handed off. I don’t recall when I fell asleep but assuming worst case scenario that I fell asleep within minutes and immediately had a seminal discharge, there’s still no chance for HIV infection? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/38 "2011-03-25T14:36:06Z")
I think the point has been made repeatedly in this thread – the virus does not survive outside the human body. You can’t get it from a bedsheet, only from a person. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/39 "2011-03-25T15:59:00Z")
Honestly, if you were sleeping on some random, sketchy bed, you know what I’d be infinitely more concerned about than HIV? Bedbugs. Seriously. That’s why I don’t, for example, stay in NYC hostels any more. Find a better class of accommodations, friend. But, before you ask: No. You can’t get HIV from bedbugs. You can’t even get it from mosquitos, and you’d better believe that _this_ is something that very serious people did careful research on. (Malaria is quite bad enough, and the current African HIV epidemic is already tragic. Mosquito-borne HIV would be … very regrettable.) Further, I’m not aware of any disease you can contract from bedbugs. They’re just very annoying. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575/40 "2011-03-25T16:05:45Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > If you were to expose HIV to saliva, it would be destroyed in an instant. Between the enzymes and antibodies and all the other stuff that’s in saliva, HIV doesn’t stand a chance. Really? So you can’t get HIV from oral? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-get-hiv-from-having-a-bodily-fluid-touch-a-bedsheet/575575.md?page=3)