[Question #12122] Hiv transfer from human blood

10 months ago

Hello Doctors

I will be direct to my inquiry.

I’m living in germany, in my city there is alot of drug addicted homeless people on the street that you can get physical touching while walking in street. Like shoulder hitting shoulder. Most of them they do have cuts all over their body and blood on arms, hand , legs and all over of their body.

I had a physical contact with one of them last week. Like my arms hits his arm while walking on the street.

I didn’t notice any blood marks on my body, but he was full with cuts and blood marks and injections marks all over the hand and arm.

1- Can that lead to hiv transmission ?

2- now it’s 1 week since this exposure, do the hiv virus can survive for 1 week if there was any drops on my stuff ?

3- how long the virus needs to be inactive and not able to transmit infection on blood outside the body ?

4- is 7 days enough if I’m being extra caution for the hiv virus on blood marks to be dead and not being possible to transmit infection if i had contact with the blood ? Or it can survive more than 7 days on blood

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

10 months ago

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for your confidence in our services.

Nobody in the world is known to have been infected with HIV by contact with another person's cuts, skin lesions, or the kind of blood contact you are concerned about. The only blood borne infections known have occurred from sharing drug injection needles or (in the distant past) by transfusion of blood or blood products. In theory, there is risk if exposed to large amounts of blood, i.e. the kind of exposure that might occur in assisting someone with a major bloody injury, like auto wreck, gunshot, etc -- and even these are extremely rare. Please don't worry about common advice from public health agencies etc that simply list "blood contact" as a risk for HIV. That does not mean any and all contact, or superficial contact, is a risk. Even infected wet blood on your skin would not risk being infected. The people who share houses, toilets, showers, kitchens, clothing, towels, etc with HIV infected people never are infected themselves, even after many years. Non-intimate contact with HIV infected people is entirely risk free.

Those comments pretty well answer your specific questions, but to be explicit:

1. No HIV rist at all.

2-4. HIV does not survive more than a few minutes of contact with air or drying of blood. This isn't important anyway: since there are no such HIV infections, the biological reasons don't matter. With no risk even with immediate contact, of course 7 days is way beyond any possible risk.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD

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10 months ago

Thank you for the answer and explanation

I was really worried, and I avoided using my stuff like phone because I touched it after i hits the drug addicted person arm , i was afraid that my phone and stuff got some infected blood on it after i hits the drug addicted person arms.

Doctor kindly to be sure … so after 7 days is it sure that the hiv virus on infected blood is dead ? It’s impossible to survive on blood for more than that ?

Because there is who says the virus can stay and survive in blood outside the body for long time like many days reaching 1 week

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

10 months ago

You're seriously overreacting. None of the thousands of doctors, nurses, and others who work in clinics serving injection drug users and HIV infected patients has ever gotten infected, even after years of directly examining them -- and we do not wear gloves or masks. And do you think we avoid using the phones, computer keyboards, etc in the clinic, or our mobile phones??? As I said, it doesn't matter whether the HIV in infected blood is alive or dead. I already answered about 7 days and haven't change my mind! (Even 7 minutes would be fine.) As for people way "the virus can say and survive in blood outside the body for a long time", anyone can write anything they want on the web. You need to stay away from websites by and for people worried about HIV, like Reddit for example.

Accept my expertise and advice or not, I don't care. But this isn't a debate and I'm not going to argue about it.

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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

10 months ago

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10 months ago

Thank you for you time and explanation. I appreciate that alot. I didn’t mean to argue at all or debate i just was trying to understand from you Dr. maybe because my weak English language it shows something I didn’t mean it.

I reached you because I really found you trustful and helpful and because I don’t understand about it so i needed your help and understanding.

I just worried and that start to affect my life, i was just trying to understand if the hiv virus for sure will be dead after 7 days and it can survive that much time at all ? Because i read from internet it can stay active for 1 week so i just was trying to understand from you and get the sure answer because it’s affecting my life badly.

Dr you said in your reply. (Even 7 minutes would be fine.) .. do you mean that in 7 minutes the hiv virus in blood will be dead and inactive ? Like that quick how it will inactive ?

And when it’s inactive it means it can’t infect?

And last thing for infected blood I don’t need to worry about it at all if it was after 1 day ?

Many thanks really DR for all and your time and explanation. Appreciated from my heart

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

10 months ago

I clearly and precisely understand your concern about the virus surviving 7 days. But I also carefully explained that how long the virus survives in blood outside the body does not matter. Nobody ever is infected by contact with blood outside the body, whether in 7 minutes or 7 days. And that you cannot be infected by the kinds of contact with possibly HIV infected people, even if you got some of their blood on your skin.

However, to answer your question, there are no good data on exact survival time. Because nobody is infected in this manner, no researchers believed this was important enough to study. Anybody who states particular intervals is making no more than an assumption or a guess. And undoubtedly it depends on highly variable conditions: temperature, humidity, whether the blood is in a closed space (like in a syringe) or exposed to air, and other factors that are not even understood.

But I repeat that it doesn't matter. If you still feel you don't understand, I suggest going back and re-reading my replies above, concentrating on every word. If English proficiency is a possible problem in understanding, try a translation program.

That concludes this thread. Please do not start another one with similar questions. Best wishes to you.

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