my friend has HIV can i get it? - Sexually Transmitted Diseases Message Board

Trivial Rush · 01-08-2005, 12:37 PM

Hi i was wondering if i can get HIV if i hang out with a friend who has it. See what if she has a sore and there is blood coming out and she wipes it off with her hand and then touches something like a book what if i pick the book up after she touched it and some blood got onto the book. And then lets say i had a pimple or something and i popped it with the same hand that i picked up the book with. Will i get aids?

CleverUserName · 01-08-2005, 02:09 PM

no.

the only way you could is if your friend got an extremely large amount of blood on you or if you had unprotected sex with them on several occasions.

paul.england · 01-08-2005, 02:16 PM

The route you described to contract HIV was so long and coincidental i almost chuckled, which is terrible really because a lot of people who use these message boards are in a lot of angst. If you read the route you described, how likely is that to happen? You can contract HIV only if viral particles enter your blood stream, this is through unprotected sex, sharing needles in IV drug use, receiving infected blood transfusions (doesn't happen anymore, all blood is screened thoroughly so dont be afraid to give/accept blood) or through the mothers blood diffusing across the placenta. In over 15 years of studying HIV transmission, there has never been any cases of transmission through casual contact worldwide. The HIV virus cannot live exposed to the air for any sort of time which makes transmission through casual contact viable, i think it dies in under a minute.

In short, its safe to hang out with her.