[Question #2556] How long does HIV live on surfaces

96 months ago

I touched the surface of the hood of my car tonight after seeing strange fingerprints (my car is red) I touched it, licked my finger and used to damp finger to rub off the mark. Then my mother told me, much to my horror my mother told me someone fell off his bike a couple hours before and hit his face. She said she gave him water because his face was bleeding (she said he stumbled near my car that was parked on the road). I wiped a damp tissue after over the finger print spots and saw (the tissue slightly tinged with the colour blood). It seemed he touched the hood of my car to balance himself.

My irrational mind went into overdrive because I touched the spot then used that same finger in my tongue to dampen when I was trying to figure out the spot. Can I get reassurance that this was a no risk activity for HIV?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

96 months ago

Welcome back to the forum.

You apparently have some misunderstandings about HIV transmission. Nobody has ever acquired HIV from an exposure anything like this. The virus is never transmitted from a contaminated environment. And the mouth is rarely the entry point for HIV. (For example, kissing and oral sex carry little or no risk of HIV.) There is little chance you contacted any blood, let alone HIV infected blood. But even if that had happened, you would not be at risk. If HIV were so easy to transmit, there would be many infected persons without sexual or drug injection risks (there are virtually none) and it wouldn't be classified as an STI. For those reasons, it doesn't matter how long HIV may live on surfaces: if such infections don't occur, the biological reasons for it really don't matter. (And anyway, the virus certainly could not survive "a couple hours".)

So no worries, no risk, and no need for testing.

I notice this is your 4th question on the forum in the past four months, all of them about negligible HIV or STI risks. It would seem you are more concerned about these infections than is warranted. If I recall a comment I saw in one of your other threads, you have not been sexually active for a few years, and I assume you also don't share injection equipment with other persons. Therefore, you are not at risk for HIV or any other STI. You really need not worry about any other kind of exposures.

Repetative questions are discouraged, so let's make this your last one until and unless you resume sexual activity or otherwise are at significant risk. ASHA doesn't want to keep expecting your hard-earned money for questions with obvious answers!

Best wishes-- HHH, MD

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96 months ago

Thank you Doctor. I do have have issues with anxiety with health that render me irrational.. I will make an effort to stop with the questions. Thanks for the reassurance.

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

96 months ago

Going beyond HIV and STIs, if health related anxieties -- especially irrational fear of contamination (i.e. serious germophobia that makes you anxious to even shake hands or otherwise have normal personal interactions), it can be an early sign of much more serious mental health disorder. (See The Aviator, the film biography of Howard Hughes, for an excellent example of where it can lead. And it's a great movie, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett!) If so, consider counseling -- which I suggest from compassion, not criticism. Also if this is the reason you have not been sexually active for several years, definitely seek care. Sexual health is too important to ignore.

Best wishes.

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