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Expert: - 3/7/2010


Question
QUESTION: I was at a restaurant the other day and poured tea onto my cup and drank it. Then I realized there was one dot of red spot on the part where the tea pours out from the teapot. The tea was warm. I also had a small cut inside my mouth on the cheeks from my retainers. Assuming that it was infected HIV blood. What are the chances of getting infected? Or am I just being paranoid?

ANSWER: Hello Gil,

Welcome to AllExperts and thanks for asking. And thanks for your wonderful question.

HIV does not survive well outside the human body. In artificially high concentrations produced in the lab, HIV drying that occurs outside of the body reduces the number of infectious viral particles by 99 percent in just a few hours. Also, while Hepatitis B and C can survive for seven days, HIV infection from infectious bodily fluids outside the human body is essentially zero. Therefore, there is no possibility of being HIV infected from dry blood, even if have open cut on your mouth. No worries.

Thanks for asking the question and please feel free to ask again for any sort of further queries or for other questions.

Sincere regards,
Gorkey


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

QUESTION: Hey Doctor,

Thanks for the explanation. I do have some follow up questions. I understand that HIV can't be spread when its dry. But would my chances of being infected increase if the the dot of blood wasn't dry? Like perhaps it might have been only exposed to the air for roughly 30 seconds. I was told that any sort of water substance like tea would reactivate the infections in blood. Considering that I drank that tea that might have touched the blood from the pot and went pass my cut in my mouth, am I still at risk? Sorry for the troubling questions.  

- Gil

Answer
Dear Gil,

Thanks for coming back, it's such an honor.

Blood is supposed to dry (coagulate) in normal environment. It takes approximately 15 minutes for blood to coagulate. To my limited knowledge, it doesn't dry in presence of chemical (anti-coagulant) or if an individual has blood disorder.

Only a spot of blood doesn't contain enough viral load to infect someone through oral cuts. Also, one can't get infected through swallowing such. So, in either of the case, you have nothing to worry about.

A request: please don't say "sorry". We're here by your side. To discuss, share knowledge. So, please :)

Regards,
Gorkey

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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)

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