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AIDS/HIV blood on orange fruit

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Expert: - 8/2/2010


Question
Thank you for your time and for providing all the valuable information to some very

worried an anxious people, including myself. I have read the forum on food and not

getting infected, but most has to do with cooking food or blood in fluid, not blood on

food eaten within SECONDS that was not heated.

Here is the situation:

I went to a party and a friend of mine had a large open cut on his left hand about 30

minutes old (near the watch area), that was not dry, so the blood was visible, no

band-aid. At some moment, he open an orange fruit, and give me half of it (about 4

slices). I am concerned because I ate the fruit which may have had blood on it and I have

a canker sore in my mouth on the side of my cheek. Also, I have gastritis, so

inflammation in the esophagus and stomach from acid reflux. Is there a risk of

transmition this way, if in fact my friend was infected and got his blood on the fruit

and I ate it right after he handed it to me? I saw him scrating his injure. Do you think

this requires testing for HIV? Am I worrying needlessly?

Thank you.

Answer
Dear Andrew,

Thanks for asking.

I have read all the issues you wrote. In this context, you have nothing to worry about. HIV is a very fragile virus and it lives very short period outside receptor. Besides,there is no scientific evidence that the HIV can be transmitted through food, even with HIV infected blood.

So, best wishes and keep smiling.

Pardon me for my delayed response.

Best regards,
Gorkey

AIDS

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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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