HIV facts

A few facts about how HIV is and is not spread. Because I know of some younger people reading this blog I will not share some of the obvious ways you get HIV. Also when I add these facts I will try to always remember to include the link in case you want to go check out the site I got the information from. http://www.avert.org/can-you-get-hiv-aids.htm


Mother to child transmission
An infected pregnant woman can pass HIV on to her unborn baby during pregnancy, labour and delivery. HIV can also be transmitted through breastfeeding.
If a woman knows she is infected with HIV, there are drugs she can take to greatly reduce the chances of her child becoming infected. For more information, go to our pages about HIV and pregnancy and mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Blood transfusions and blood products
Some people have been infected through a transfusion of infected blood. These days, in developed countries all the blood used for transfusions is tested for HIV. In those countries where the blood is tested, HIV infection through blood transfusions is now extremely rare. In some developing countries, testing systems are not so efficient and transmission through blood transfusions continues to occur.

Blood products, such as those used by people with haemophilia, are now heat-treated to make them safe.

Infection in health-care settings
Hospitals and clinics should take precautions to prevent the spread of blood-borne infections. These measures include using sterile surgical instruments, wearing gloves, and safely disposing of medical waste. In developed countries, HIV transmission in health-care settings is extremely rare. However, cases continue to occur in less-resourced areas where safety procedures are not so well implemented.

Health-care workers have on rare occasions become infected with HIV by being stuck with needles containing HIV-infected blood. A few have also become infected by HIV-infected blood getting into the bloodstream through an open cut, or splashing onto a mucous membrane (e.g. the eyes or the inside of the nose). There have been only a very few documented instances of patients acquiring HIV from an infected health-care worker. We have more information about healthcare workers and HIV infection.

Tattoos / piercing
Anything that potentially allows another person's blood to get into your bloodstream carries a risk. If the equipment has not been sterilised before having a tattoo or piercing, there could be a significant risk of exposure if the person before was HIV positive.
In most developed countries there are hygiene regulations governing tattoo and piercing parlours to ensure all instruments used are sterile. If you are thinking of having a tattoo or piercing, ask staff at the shop what procedures they take to avoid infection.

Kissing
To become infected with HIV you must get a sufficient quantity of the virus into your body. Saliva does contain HIV, but the virus is only present in very small quantities and as such cannot cause HIV infection.
Unless both partners have large open sores in their mouths, or severely bleeding gums, there is no transmission risk from mouth-to-mouth kissing.

Sneezing, coughing, sharing glasses,cups ect
HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host, except under strictly controlled laboratory conditions. HIV does not survive well in the open air, and this makes the possibility of this type of environmental transmission remote. In practice no environmental transmission has been recorded.

This means that HIV cannot be transmitted through spitting, sneezing, sharing glasses, cutlery, or musical instruments. You also can't be infected in swimming pools, showers or by sharing washing facilities or toilet seats.

Insects
Studies conducted by many researchers have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through insect bites, even in areas where there are many cases of HIV and AIDS and large populations of insects such as mosquitoes. Lack of such outbreaks, despite considerable efforts to detect them, supports the conclusion that insects do not transmit HIV.

HIV only lives for a short time and cannot reproduce inside an insect. So, even if the virus enters a mosquito or another sucking or biting insect, the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the next human it feeds on or bites.