You are here:

AIDS/semen on towel

Advertisement

Expert: - 10/23/2010


Question
my previous question about contracting HIV from wet semen/blood on cloth(at least an hour old but wet/damp) and then possible touching of the mucous membranes was very well awnsered, i thank you for it.
but in the awnser you said that it cannot be spread this way because HIV lives outside the body for a few minutes.
but the last awnser you gave you said "consider infectious if wet" is it true for the situation where these fluids have been otside the body for an hour and still wet(on a cloth maybe a cloth in the dustbin)
there is a slight contadiction here.
or you still maintain that it cannot be spread this way because of time lapse and environment factors?
thanks again  

Answer
Hello Jacki,

Thanks for knocking back again. And it's such an honor to be complimented. The sequence of questions were about semen in towel, then blood and then wet conditions. Now, let us come back to this question:

Thanks again for pointing out an area and I understand the point of confusion. "If wet" refers to special conditions. Now, to avoid confusion, let us keep points simple:

• HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host, except under laboratory conditions. Therefore, it does not spread or maintain infectiousness outside its host.
• HIV infection from infectious bodily fluids outside the human body is essentially zero
• HIV does not survive for long (even in wet cloths), even if there is some sperm on clothing
• The virus can only infect someone when it directly enters ones blood stream (in this context: through cloths).
• The possibility of HIV transmission from wet cloths is essentially zero

Please let me know if there is any gray area where I can help. Sorry for my delayed response.

Regards,
Gorkey

Adding a link, which seemed information rich:
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/insite?page=ask-01-10-20

AIDS

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Gorkey Gourab

Expertise

Social and behavioral issues related to HIV transmission, sexually transmitted infections, Human Rights issues, rights of marginalized populations, gender and sexuality, research design and analysis related social & behavioral issues, , computer assisted qualitative data analysis and data management (using ATLAS.ti, ANTHROPAC, NVivo 8)

Experience

Specialized in Medical Anthropology. Working on Social and behavioral studies related to HIV transmission as well as Human Rights issues. Specialization in gender, sexuality, masculinity, behavioral studies related to HIV transmission. Qualitative research, programmatic and M&E experience with MSM, hijra (TG), indigenous groups, female sex workers for more than 7 years.

Organizations
International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) as Manager - M&E (Qualitative) with Center for HIV and AIDS

Publications
International peer-reviewed journals & technical papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., Gourab, G., & Bhuiya, A. (2009). Living on the extreme margin: Social exclusion of the hijra in Bangladesh. Journal of health, population and nutrition. (2) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., & Sikder, J. (2008). Not to stigmatize but to humanize sexual lives of the transgender (hijra): condom chat in the AIDS era. Journal of LGBT Health Research (Special issue: issues on male sexual behaviors and HIV risk in South Asia). Working papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Gourab, G., Ahmed, T., Sarker, G. F., Chowdhury, F. K., Ghosh, S., et al. (2009). Understanding the operational dynamics and possible HIV interventions for residence-based female sex workers in two divisional cities in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: NASP, Save the Children USA and icddr,b. Presentations in scientific meetings and conferences: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G. & Azim, T. (2011, 16 March 2011). Use of a new approach to count and access diverse groups of hijra for scaling up HIV-preventions services in Bangladesh. Poster presented at the 13th Annual Scientific Conference (ASCON XIII), Dhaka. (2) Khan, S. I., Pasa, K., Gourab, G., & Islam, A. (2007). Indigenous populations of Bangladesh: Living with risks and vulnerabilities to STIs/HIV. 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP). Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Education/Credentials
MSS (Anthropology), University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Awards and Honors
The Vanderbilt-UAB Fogarty International Center AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP)Scholarship for the training on HIV-AIDS related qualitative data analysis and manuscript writing (Center for Global Health, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.