AboutIan Expertise All aspects of HIV and AIDS, with a special interest in a person`s individual perception and understanding of the virus. Why ? Because this will help in prevention !
Experience As teacher and researcher in the field of HIV and AIDS care.
Organizations I am a lecturer at a University in the UK, and advise a number of organisations on HIV/AIDS and especially the stigma that surrounds HIV.
Expert: Ian Date: 6/9/2008 Subject: saliva blood mix getting into eye
Question Dear Ian, I had almost finished asking you my questions when I hit the space bar having everything I had written disappear from my screen and me not being able to retrieve it.WHAT FRUSTRATION! My situation: I was talking recently with someone I do not know well and during the course of conversation I felt his spit hit my eye. After our conversation, about a minute later I wiped my eye with my hand. Later, I became concerned that since my eye is a mucus membrane that I may have contracted hiv in this manner.I read on several sites that saliva is not considered to be a source of contamination for hiv and that it contains enzymes that actually kill the virus.So I am not concerned about this incident if it was only saliva that hit my eye. However,if for some reason the saliva was mixed with blood there could be the possibility of hiv contamination. Since I can find no info on what the chance of getting hiv in this manner,eg.(1 in 100, 2 in 500) I ask hypothetically what the figures would be if straight blood had hit my eye? Also, I read that hiv is not airborne so if saliva tainted with blood hit my eye how would the airborne effect factor in? Most importantly,is it rare that people would have blood and saliva in their mouths or do a lot of people typically have blood tainted saliva in their mouths? I would like to assume that it was only saliva.I was hoping that you can help me sort things out and help me put this into a realistic prospective. I suppose that people getting spittle in their eyes during conversation is a fairly common happening and if a person could be contaminated in this manner then most of the world's population would have hiv. Thank you for reading this rambling and lengthy query.I am hoping you can offer me some reassurance concerning this.Thanks again.
Answer Hi
Thanks for the question, and I can understand why you may be anxious. You are right of course, part of our eye is mucous membrane, so in theory if fresh infected fluid (e.g. blood) splashed into our eye, then there is a chance of infection (this is why many people working in hospital operating theatres wear eye protection).
BUT - because saliva is not a source of infection (as you say) then it does not pose a risk, and even if there was blood mixed in the spittle there simply isn't enough concentration to spread HIV.
