Expert: Terry B - 8/1/2007

Question
I sat on a wet toilet seat in my hotel room that got wet because the housekeeper used a cleaning brush she used to clean other toilets in the hotel with this same brush.She did spray the inside of the toilet bowl in my room with some kind of cleaning solution and then swished the brush around in the toilet water before she used the brush on the toilet seat and left it wet.  Suppose she had cleaned a toilet in the room just prior to mine and this toilet in the other room had contaminated blood in it.I had a small scratch area on my backside that made contact with the wet seat.Would the water and the air the brush had come in contact with have deactivated the virus? If a contaminated surface is wiped down with water and left to sit for 15 minutes would that deactivate the virus even though it is still wet with water.If the hiv virus is so fragile why do some sites say that boiling water can deactivate the virus after 20 minutes? It seems pretty hardy if it takes 20 minutes to be deactivated by boiling water.Thank you for your time.

Answer
Dear Sandra:

Peace.  Speaking of HIV risk, miniscule are the chances of a significant amount of blood, semen, vaginal secretions (or breast milk) from an infected person being transferred from another room to yours via toilet brush, even if the housekeeper were using only water for clean-up.  Most would use some disinfectant in the process as well.  Now, multiply the fractional chances of those fluids making the journey to arrive on your toilet by the fractional chances of an open cut on your behind finding and contacting that specific spot on the toilet seat... my math suggests your HIV risk is virtually non-existent.

For broader discussion of infection control, please see www.thebody.com or www.unaids.org and related sites.  For your own personal risk, be relieved and assured you could not contract HIV in this manner.

Peace and all good things,

Terry