Posted: 3/10/2007 9:49:27 AM EDT
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So today I learned one of my coworkers is HIV positive. What I need to know is, how long does the virus live after it is out of the persons body? I let the guy use my knife to dig out a splinter once, and sometime after that I used the knife on myself to dig out a splinter. How long would the virus stay alive on the tip of that knife? This was before he knew he was HIV positive. oh, and, no you can't have my guns. |
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http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/qa/qa35.htm 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. Results from laboratory studies should not be used to assess specific personal risk of infection because (1) the amount of virus studied is not found in human specimens or elsewhere in nature, and (2) no one has been identified as infected with HIV due to contact with an environmental surface. 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. spacer |
You should be okay, but the virus should die almost immediately once it leaves the body. |
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Odds of transmisssion through bodily fluid transfer have been quoted as 1/500 for unsafe heterosexual sex. The virus itself does not remain viable outside of the human body for very long at all, assuming that there was a couple of minutes between when he used the knife and when you did and you wiped the blade off, I wouldn't worry too much about it. That being said if you have a wife or girlfriend I'd get tested. |
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Did a search and found this: www.hivtest.org/ Check it out, alot of places offer free testing. 
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| Not to scare anyone but please convince me that hiv cannot be transmitted by mosquitos. It is a virus correct? If a virus like rocky mtn fever,enscephalitus,malaria, and a multitude of other diseases can be spred by insects why not hiv??? With the track record of the fed govt telling the average citizen the truth in all things.. Can we believe what they are telling us is the truth about this? Prove to me beyond the shadow of a doubt Please... |
Thre is no evidence that HIV an be spread by mosquitos. The CDC studied this question can concluded that it is not possible. FWIW - mosquitos don't inject blood when they bite. |
That's not a virus. It's a parasite. |
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CDC is too politicized to take their word at face value about mosquitos, AIDS, firearms, and probably some other things as well. When a dozen CDC employees put their arm in an enclosure full of mosquitos that sucked blood from AIDS patients for a day, and don't get infected within a year, I may reconsider. They are very much into spin control. Studies they rely on have the same potential for bias inasmuch as AIDS research has become permeated with agendas. I contacted CDC once back in the 80's requesting a copy of their MMWR and they refused to send it to me. Your tax dollars at work. Blood banks used to believe you couldn't get AIDS by donating, until it happened due to sloppy sterile practice that could easily have been avoided, by cleaning puncture splatter up. I'd see a doctor and get tested now and after the incubation period, just to ease your mind. I wouldn't necessarily believe or disbelieve that he didn't know at the time. |
They do if you squish them when they are biting you. |
i'll toss this at you. Equine Infectious Anemia.. basically HIV in a horse/equine, is in reality 2 genes off from the routine HIV strain. HIV=P24 gene isolate for testing EIA= p26 gene isolate for testing, i believe.. EIA is transmitted thru 4-5 types of horseflies..and only these horseflies. why cant HIV be transmitted thru a mosquito.. as a Registered Medical Technologist, with extensive Immunology/Serology experience, i don't recall ever seeing any reliable data from a reliable study to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that HIV cannot be spread by a insect host. if a study has been done that i havent wandered across..i would be more than willing to give it a read thru. |
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This thread needs some more tinfoil. The CDC is lying to us? Not all Viruses are created equal. Some are very durable and can survive outside of a host well. HIV can not. It's vulnerable to heat, dehydration, UV radiation, oxygen, and whole litany of other environmental hazards it gets exposed to when out side the body. There has been absolutely no evidence that HIV can be transmitted by mosquitoes. And that makes sense for a couple reasons- some having to do with HIV some having to do with the way mosquitoes feed. While it is worthwhile getting tested, strong odds are that you do not have HIV. Obviously, you should practice better hygiene, not just with HIV positive people but everyone. You should never share things like needles, razors or in this case a 'surgical' tool with out first cleaning it with a disinfectant or heat. The next time something like this comes up, just pass the knife blade over a flame a few times before and after each person uses it. This will not only sterilize it for HIV but a bunch of other nasty bugs you could be getting. Working with a HIV positive person is not at all dangerous as long as you apply the same precautions you should be using with everyone. Please, try not to let the HIV positive thing change the way you treat this guy. He could probably use a friend about now, and at least a good coworker. -Local |
Here is one It examined both bedbugs and mosquitoes. It found that while HIV remained in the bugs days after they received a meal containing it, there was no replication and no evidence that it could be transmitted. Mosquitoes do not inject any blood, just saliva. While some viruses do survive in insect saliva, HIV does not. There have been a few studies that show that insect transmission is either impossible or highly, highly improbable even with all conditions favoring it. This is backed up by not one verified example of insect transmission in one of the most studied viruses. Not one. -Local |
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Wait, I was wrong!! The government would NEVER lie to us, especially for our "own good". <<sticks head back in sand>> And agent orange is a prefectly good chaser for your morning kool-aid. Try to get funding from CDC to study actual attempts to infect bare-skinned test animals and see how far you get.....or NIH...or anywhere else. If they control the money, they control the "evidence". |
Sounds like a variant on "ozone therapy". It doesn't work because you cannot eradicate 100% of the virii. They hide in the brain, in the kidneys, and damn near everywhere else in the body. That doesn't prevent scam artists from trying to persuade desperate people that it's their only hope and that there is a massive government/drug-company conspiracy to cover up their huge record of cures.  At this point, the only proven cure for HIV is death. |
A few years ago while I was going through medical hell, one of the physicians I went to advised me to get an HIV test. He made it very clear that I should NOT get one through my insurance or even at a hospital where I would have to give my name, because insurance companies tend to see the need for an HIV test as an indicator of risk. If the county health department tests anonymously, the $30 is a bargain; if they require your name or other identifying information, it's probably better to go to a pharmacy and get one of those home HIV tests by "Home Access Health Care". Cost is $60 plus tax and you can call them for results one business day later. I'm certified HIV-negative as of last December, praise Vishnu. 
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| HIV is really relatively difficult to transmit, especially compared to hep virus. You have nothing to worry about. There were studies done where one child in a family would have HIV from birth, and in not one case was HIV transmitted to the other children as they grew up together. Anyone who has kids knows they are not sterile with one another. If you are not sharing needles or having sex with an HIV infected person, you have nothing to worry about. |
| To put things in perspective for you, healthcare workers who suffer accidental needle sticks with hollow needles containing HIV+ blood run ~ 0.25% chance of subsequently contracting the disease. That's 1 in 400, with immediate exposure. I assume your knife didn't have obvious blood showing on it, and that hours or days had passed between his using it and you're poking yourself with it. Thus, your risk is going to be significantly less then that one in four hundred. |
I'd be shitting myself right about now
I Was waiting for it. 
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Yes, they are all viruses but like all other things diffrent species have diffrent life cycles. The viruses you mention have evolved to be vectored by mosquitos. HIV has not, and if it did pritty much every human on earth would have HIV by now. |
If he starts looking cute........you've got it! 
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Well, how long of a time was there between him using the knife and you? How long has it been since this happened?(I ask because tests aren't effective till months after exposure). If it has been a year since this happened, just go get a test. I think false positives are somewhat common though... Anyway, don't just internalize this sh*t, go see a doctor or something. This has the potential to seriously f*ck with your mind(as I'm sure it already has). |
Yeah - I think it's pretty well established that mosquitos DO NOT transmit HIV/AIDS. My parents lived in West Africa for a number of years in the early 1990s, and they looked into this very carefully before moving there. If it could be transmitted by mosquitos, pretty much everyone in sub-saharah africa would have HIV now. Of course, if HIV mutates/evolves into a version that CAN be transmitted by mosquitos, then we are totaly hosed - although not quite as hosed as if it mutates into an airborne version - so I guess there's always something to worry about. |