Back in the early eighties we were all told not to shun AIDS carriers because the virus was very fragile and couldn’t survive outside the body long enough to make handshaking or sharing a toilet seat dangerous. But, discarded syringes and hypodermics are treated as an extreme Biohazard. Is this to safeguard against Hepatitis and other blood borne agents? or is HIV a tougher virus than I thought and can remain viable for days outside the body?
Any Information gratefully recieved.
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HIV can not survive outside the body. In that respect it is fragile. A contained area such as a syringe or vial can and does still support HIV as a living virus. You have nothing to worry about with casual contact or even salivary contact with a person with HIV. If that were possible it would be an even scarier epidemic than anthrax. Not quite apocolyptical even though seeing the horsemen would be great.
Calgon, take me away. I wonder which demon Calgon refers to is?
A Demon Plaything
PS. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/transmission.htm has more information about the transmission of HIV. Typically HIV is unstable when out of the body for any length of time however on that page is said that, “Although HIV has been transmitted between family members in a household setting, this type of transmission is very rare. These transmissions are believed to have resulted from contact between skin or mucous membranes and infected blood.” So I guess you have to be slightly more careful.
A Demon Plaything
Is the virus destroyed by drop in temperature? or dessication? or change in pH? If it can remain viable in a syringe of blood is it in the red cells? or Plasma? I can’t find this info anywhere else other than the platitudinous “HIV can’t exist outside the body” and I can’t understand the apparent dual nature of a single virus without some scientific explanation.
Maybe nobody knows.
You should really learn to read. From the above link:
“Although these unnatural concentrations (lab grown HIV which is abnormally high) 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.”
So HIV dessicates quickly outside of the body and basically dies.
“Additionally, HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host (unlike many bacteria or fungi, which may do so under suitable conditions), except under laboratory conditions, therefore, it does not spread or maintain infectiousness outside its host.”
So HIV can’t multiply outside the body.
“Additionally, HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host (unlike many bacteria or fungi, which may do so under suitable conditions), except under laboratory conditions, therefore, it does not spread or maintain infectiousness outside its host.”
Touch contact still went into the bloodstream somehow so it is never died or was out of the body to die.
“From the onset of the HIV epidemic, there has been concern about transmission of the virus by biting and bloodsucking insects. However, studies conducted by researchers at CDC and elsewhere have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through insects–even in areas where there are many cases of AIDS and large populations of insects such as mosquitoes. Lack of such outbreaks, despite intense efforts to detect them, supports the conclusion that HIV is not transmitted by insects.”
So it is at least limited to human hosts.
The first link states that HIV can exist outside the body but it can not do so for any length of time. I don’t know the specific lab conditions where HIV is grown. In order to get those high concentrations that is needed to study it I would venture to guess that it is not grown inside a human. Look over the link from the center for disease control. Here it is again, since you didn’t see it the first time.
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/transmission.htm
A Demon Plaything
An overlap of transmission meant that I posted before reading you excellent link; for which many thanks, it does describe some of the effects but I think you will agree does not explain them, my search continues.
I would worry more about acquiring Hepatitis C (or Hep B, if you’re not immunized) from a discarded syringe.