Disease carrying creatures - General Health Message Board

singer1 · 11-06-2004, 05:48 PM

Hi Everyone!

I would like to know something here. I know that mosquitos can carry HIV but can birds through their droppings? A friend of mine really freaked out because apparently she found Bird poop on her Denim pants. She said that it happened out in the country sometime when she apparently was outside. I looked at it and I questioned the bird poop thing because first of all, it was a cream color substance and the way it looked on her pants, (towards the bottom og her leg) it was perfectly round in shape on one of the pant legs, now on the other, it looked like something splattered I guess. Anyway, she touched it with her hand and that hand had some excema (sp) and she said that she couldn't remember if what she touched from her pants actually got onto that part but now she is worried that if the bird dropped some infected droppings that it got into her skin.

First of all, is excema considered to be open skin like getting bacteria or something into an open cut? I thought it was basically just dry skin? Well, I hope someone can answer back on this to put my friends mind at ease. I really feel badly for her because she is so upset.

kehorner · 11-06-2004, 08:37 PM

I would highly doubt the presence of HIV in bird droppings... HIV is a blood-borne virus, so firstly the bird would have to be carrying the virus, and secondly there would have to be some sort of problem where the bird was leaking blood into the droppings. I would say in general she has no worries. If anything, there could be a small risk of bacterial infection if she did indeed have any openings in the skin. But if she isn't having any symptoms, I wouldn't worry.

singer1 · 11-07-2004, 08:35 AM

This just happened yesterday so as far as the symptoms go, I really don't know if she has any per say yet if at all. She was asking me though if anything could penetrate through dry cracked skin? I don't know the answer to that. Anyone know??

zuzu8 · 11-08-2004, 01:24 AM

You're girlfriend needn't worry.
HIV cannot be transmitted by mosquitoes. Here's a link that explains why...published by the Entomology Dept. at Rutgers University:

[url]http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:r3ZDWGz_dhEJ:www.rci.rutg ers.edu/~insects/aids.htm+%22mosquitoes+cannot%22+%22hiv% 22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8[/url]

The boards don't make links "clickable" anymore so you'll have to copy and paste the URL into your address bar.

Regarding bird droppings, again, your girlfriend can relax.

I think the confusion about HIV and bird droppings comes from the fact that there's a fungal infection called histoplasmosis that usually affects the lungs. This fungus lives in soil, especially soil that's enriched with bird droppings.
If someone who already has HIV or whose immune system is compromised in any way develops histoplasmosis, it can lead to very serious lung infection.

Since I presume your girlfriend is healthy she needn't be concerned one iota.

Bird droppings per se are "dirty" just like any feces from any "critter" but as long as she washed her hands, like kehorner said, I doubt that having dry excema would make her susceptible to any infection (bacterial) from the droppings.

zuzu xx

singer1 · 11-08-2004, 10:25 PM

Thanks! I'll pass that message along.