Expert: Gorkey Gourab - 10/22/2010

Question
QUESTION: hi
would touching semen (at least an hour old) on a towel or
underwear or bedsheet and possible touching the eye or picking
the nose cause hiv(if the semen is hiv infected)?

ANSWER: Hello Jacki,

Welcome to AllExperts.

No, HIV does not transmit in the ways you mentioned. HIV is a very fragile virus and it lives very short period outside receptor (few minutes).


HIV is transmitted when infected blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or breast milk enter another person's body. Thus, HIV infection is spread in broadly three ways:
1. Unsafe sexual intercourse
2. Direct contact with infected blood
3. From an infected mother to her child (during pregnancy, delivery and through breastfeeding)

Best regards,
Gorkey


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hiv would not transmit this way even though after an hour the
semen or blood on towel/underwear/bedsheet would still be wet?

ANSWER: Yes Jacki, you are absolutely right. It's not about wet cloths ... HIV does not survive that long, and it needs to enter ones blood stream (in this case) to get one infected.

Sorry for my delayed response.

Best wishes and regards,
Gorkey

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for the reply sir, but in this case you say that even if you touch the wet/damp semen or blood on a cloth after an hout and pick your nose or touch your eye the hiv would not spread as it does not survive for an hour even though semen/blood is still wet/damp? but in this case the eye and the nose would be mucus membranes from where it may enter the bloodstream ,still no danger as it survives for only a few minutes? have i got it right?
has the FEW MINUTES SURVIVAL been researched?  

Answer
Hello Jacki,

Welcome again.

Generally, when we ask the question, "How long can HIV survive outside the body?" we have come into contact with some body fluid those we think might contain HIV, and we become worried about transmission. Almost always these are about casual contact (such as the one you mentioned), and we know the virus is not transmitted except during unprotected sex, sharing needles, or through significant and DIRECT EXPOSURE to infected blood.

The length of time HIV can survive outside the body depends on:
• the amount of HIV present in the body fluid;
• what conditions the fluid is subjected to

In a laboratory, HIV has been kept viable (able to infect) for up to 15 days, and even after the body fluid containing it had dried. However, these experiments involved an extremely high concentration of the virus which was kept at a stable temperature and humidity. These conditions are very unlikely to exist outside of a laboratory. HIV is very fragile, and many common substances, including hot water, soap, bleach and alcohol, will kill it.

The chances of becoming infected with HIV by handling a body fluid are extremely small, because that fluid will rarely have access to a person's bloodstream. AND YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT: handling blood, semen or vaginal fluids and touching them with broken skin or getting them into MUCOUS MEMBRANES (such as THOSE AROUND THE EYE) may contain risk, if HIV is present in those substances mentioned earlier.

Air does not "kill" HIV, but exposure to air dries the fluid that contains the virus, and that will destroy or break up much of the virus very quickly. HIV cannot survive for very long outside of the human body. If the blood is dry, the virus will be dead. If it is wet, a chance exists that it could still be active. However, blood dries out (coagulates) quickly if there is no blood related complicacies or anti-coagulants used. HIV is very short lived on an inanimate surface. In wet fluid, consider infectious.

All the facts mentioned above are based on scientific evidences. And see the concept of several minutes is applicable to most of the setting; except those laboratory or few exceptional environmental settings.

Regards,
Gorkey