In my immunology class, the professor said something along the lines of, “If you share needles with someone who’s HIV+, you only have a 20% chance of becoming infected yourself.” (I think he said sharing needles, but if that makes no sense maybe it was something else).
I was suprised that the chances were that low, and so I was wondered, what are your chances of getting AIDS from various situations?
How likely are you to become infected from
contaminated blood transfusion?
working in an AIDS hospital?
sharing needles?
anal sex, HIV+ on top?
anal sex, HIV+ on bottom?
vaginal sex, man is infected?
vaginal sex, woman is infected?
[Also, not quite GQish, but related: I remember reading a newspaper article written by a gay man about HIV anxiety and stuff. He rather scornfully mentioned mentioned men who stay away from infected ‘lepers’- of course, he would never stoop to such discrimination. I don’t get his attitude- isn’t it common sense not to have sex with people who have a contagious fatal disease? Or am I just being clueless?]
He doesn’t provide specific numbers, or cover most of the scenarios I listed . I did forget to ask about oral sex, though, so thanks for bringing it up.
Yeah, that’s why I didn’t refer to Him as “the Perfect Master”. You can use that article (and the previous one) for the references that can get you some of the answers that you’re looking for, though.
In your OP you seem to use “HIV” and “AIDS” interchangably. They are not the same thing. HIV is known to lead to AIDS sometimes (I think the rate is something like 50% but don’t quote me on that, I don’t have a source handy), but not all the time.
Ummm…I don’t think that’s right. According to wikipedia: “Without treatment, about 9 out of every 10 persons with HIV will progress to AIDS after 10–15 years. Many progress much sooner.” Obviously with treatment the time period can be extended, sometimes to the point where the patient dies of other causes before developing AIDS, but I believe over a long enough time span, pretty close to 100% of infected individuals will develop AIDS.
Well, the amount of blood being transferred would be almost microscopic; I mean, it’d be just whatever schmutz got left on the tip of the needle. Sharing needles is stupid not because the odds of AIDS is objectively high, but because it’s mutherfuckn’ AIDS.
Considering that the infectiousness of HIV is much lower than many people suppose (witness the surprise on this thread given some of the transmission rate figures) as well as the astounding advances that medical science has made in allowing those with HIV to lead long and unimpaired lives, I think it is misleading, and a little bit in poor taste, to refer to those with HIV as “people capable of transmitting the Death Virus of Doom via bodily fluids.”
Those statistics are not accurate. The only way to get a statistic that is true and reliable is through a double blind study. We don’t test HIV on people so there is no way to know.
Look at pin pricks. You have a few hundred people with HIV through pin pricks, but thousands others that got pricked with HIV infected needles and didn’t get it.
But to accurately get a number you’d have to look at amount of HIV, age and relative health status of the pin prick victim, you’d have to look at sexual risks and categorize those without any chance of getting HIV against those who don’t
There are so many other factors that we can get a guess but that’s it. Unless you select your patients carefully for all health and risk factors and then deliberately infect them with HIV in a double blind study you can’t get a reliable number. We don’t do this.
So you get backtracking with these numbers. For instance, in the pin pricks they simply take people that GET pricked accidently with needles then question them retroactively. This often leads to wrong data.
I’m not saying the numbers are wildly inaccurate, what I’m saying is they are not statistics but rather educated guesses.
Let me preface this post with the fact that I am HIV positive, and have been for six years.
I got it through vaginal sex in a long term relationship where he did not know he was infected. He got it from a girlfriend, through vaginal sex (from a previous long term relationship). She knew she was positive for 3 years before they were together, but failed to mention that fact during their five year relationship. She has since died. He and I are still together 7 years later.
Now that that is out of the way…let me address this:
The problem with the statement above is that it is WAY too early to tell about this. The virus, and subsquently the treatments for said virus, haven’t been known for long enough for anyone to make that judgement.
Yes, it is a bad disease to have and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. However, statements like the one above only perpetuate the stigma attached to having this that is almost worse than the actual disease.
I have been on an HIV “cocktail” for the past 3 years. My Infectious Disease Doctor has told me that with the variety of drugs there are now, as compared to 15 or 20 years ago, it is a good bet that I will be able to live out my life and probably die from something else, as long as I remain “Med Compliant”.
Last time I checked, life expectancy for HIV patients stood at 24 years from time of diagnosis. However, that figure included those who were infected well before the advent of AZT and subsequent HIV medications, and those who had full-blown AIDS at time of diagnosis.
I actually think I am in better health now than before diagnosis. Why? Because I have very thorough health care. I get 15 vials of blood drawn every 6 months. These check not only my viral staus, but also liver & kidney function, blood cholesterol and an assortment of other measures. This means that any problems I run into will get addressed quickly. Before the virus, I only went to the doctor if something was wrong.
Why do you assume “stay away from” meant “not have sex with?” The way I’m reading your description, he is scornful of men who don’t associate with those who have the disease, it has nothing do to with sex. Of course, I’m only going by your description here, so if he did mean something else in the article, it’s not obvious.
That’s incorrect. Heroin and other abused IV drugs are injected by first drawing in blood, allowing it to mix with the drug in the syringe, and then injecting the mixture into the vein. Some users will then draw blood back into the syringe and push it out again, to “rinse it out.” The residue is still a fairly small amount, but it’s a lot more than “schmutz left on the tip.”
10 out of 10,000 chances of getting infected from penile intercourse? Why would anyone publicize this? Do you know how many people will read that and say hey theres a great chance I won’t get it?
Is it really that low also? Here i thought I was unusual, having unprotected sex with a full blown aids patient eight times and turning out fine. Its much less risky than i thought!