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Dried Blood & HIV

The transmission of the virus HIV, which depletes the body's immune system, is a subject of considerable confusion and misinformation. Although the virus makes its home in a number of bodily fluids, such as blood and semen, it is not easily communicated without direct contact between the bodily fluids of two people. The virus can live only a short time outside the human body, making it difficult to contract HIV from dried blood.

  1. Features

    • HIV can be passed between people when the bodily fluids of a person infected with the virus enters the body of another person in sufficient quantities that it is able to reproduce. The most common method of entering the body is through the bloodstream, although the virus can be absorbed during activities that do not involve blood, such as sexual intercourse. For example, a woman who has unprotected sex with a man infected with HIV can absorb the virus through the walls of the vagina. According to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, AIDS can be transmitted only through sex, the sharing of intravenous needles and through "significant and direct exposure to infected blood."

    Significance

    • According to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, HIV can remain viable in samples of dried blood up to 15 days. However, these samples were kept in a controlled environment and contained an unusually high concentration of the virus. HIV is very fragile and can be easily killed with hot water, soap, bleach and alcohol. Theoretically, one could contract the virus from a quantity of dried blood if the blood contained a significantly high virus load and the blood were placed into direct and prolonged contact with an uninfected person's bloodstream. However, the odds of this happening are minimal.

    Considerations

    • Intravenous drug users who share needles should be aware that infected blood left in or on the needle, even dried blood, will likely experience the sort of prolonged, direct contract that could result in transmission. They should therefore avoid sharing needles or, at the very least, thoroughly wash the needles before sharing them.

    Misconceptions

    • HIV cannot be contracted by touching or smelling dried HIV-infected blood. Unless the person has an open wound on his body that comes in contact with the blood, the virus has no means of entering the bloodstream.

    Warnings

    • Anyone handling blood, semen or vaginal fluids infected with HIV should make sure the fluids do not come into contact with a cut or a mucous membrane, such as the eye. According to the San Francisco City Clinic, spills of such fluid should be thoroughly wiped up and cleaned with bleach.

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