[Question #9444] Hiv blood survives on surfaces

32 months ago

Hello Doctor i had a scenario , I ordered juice and the delivery man who delivered the juice had cuts on his hand. Then i used the straw that was touched by him directly to drink the juice.

1- Is drinking from the straw and putting it in my mouth can transfer hiv ? If there was dry blood on it ?

2- how long can infected hiv dry blood survive on surfaces? When the blood will be not active and non-infectious anymore ?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

32 months ago

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for your question.

You should not be at all worried. In the 35 years of the known world wide HIV/AIDS epidemic, with millions of infected persons, not one is known to have been infected by contacting blood in the environment. There is no risk from sharing eating or drinking equipment (including straws), even if previously used by an HIV infected person and if that person's blood was on the implement. Whether or not HIV survives on objects and surfaces is the wrong question. It does not, especially after the blood dries -- but even if live virus is present, it is NEVER caught by exposure to a contaminated environment. Likewise (and for the same reasons), household members of HIV infected persons never become infected themselves despite years of shared toilets, kitchens, eating utensils, cups, etc.

Those comments cover both your questions, but to be explicit and assure no misunderstanding: 1) No risk, even if there was dry (or wet) blood on the straw. 2) As noted above, this doesn't matter. But you can safely assume the virus is dead once blood or other body fluid has dried. But even direct contact of a cut on an HIV infected person (e.g. a cut finger in your mouth) would carry little or no risk of infection.

To avoid HIV, have only safe sex or have sex only with low risk uninfected partners; and do not share drug injection equipment with other persons. That's all. Dismiss all other kinds of contact with other peopled you'll remain free of HIV for life.

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

HHH, MD

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32 months ago

Thank you for the reply and explanation

There is what made worry because I read in some website that infected dry blood remain infectious for a couple of days up to 7 days ? Or it’s only takes few hours until is totally dry to be non-infectious?

Also regarding using the straw is it still free risk even if it contains little dry blood and i did use it by putting it in my mouth?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

32 months ago

As I said, HOW LONG HIV SURVIVES IN BLOOD OUTSIDE THE BODY DOESN'T MATTER! I suggest you avoid even reading about it, since so much information making this point comes from people who also do not understand what is important in HIV transmission, or who are intentionally misleading their readers. What matters is not whether live virus might be present, but whether there has ever been a known tranmission of HIV by contact with blood or body fluids in the environment, on infected persons' hands, or things they have touched. IT DOESN"T HAPPEN, and therefore the biology of HIV survival is irrelevant.

And no, putting a contaminated straw in your mouth does not risk HIV. Swallowing the virus is low risk! (That's why performing oral sex on a male, and swallowing infected semen, has an average risk of one chance in 10,000. That's equivalent to giving BJs to infected men once daily for 27 years before infection might occur.

The bottom line is that HIV is hard to transmit. Specific cells deep inside the body must be exposoed to LOTS of virus.

Got it?

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32 months ago

Got it sir thank you for that appreciate it

I had a worker for furniture installation, while the installation he had a cut on his hand with a little blood, since then I avoided touching the furniture because i was afraid that there will be some blood on it .. it’s now almost 7 days and i didn’t touch the furniture. My mind was telling me to wait for a few days until the dry blood become non-infectious

32 months ago

Doctor even touching infected dry blood with small non bleeding cut in my hand is no risk for transmission?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

32 months ago

You thank me for my advice and then proceed to describe another obviously zero risk situation. The answers both to that and to the last one are obvious from my comments above: no risk.

That completes the two follow-up comments and replies included with each question and so ends this thread. Please do not post any more questions about HIV risks from exposure to blood other than by sex or sharing drug injection equipment. Thank you. I do hope the discussion has been helpful and that you can move on with no further worries along these lines.

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