Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the possible ways through which the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spreads from one person to another. These studies proved that HIV cannot be transmitted through surfaces such as toilet seats, chairs, doorknobs, drinking glasses, and bedsheets. The virus cannot survive outside a human host; hence, transmission through air, water (swimming pools), insect bites,s or casual contact such as handshakes, hugs or touch is not possible. No case of passing the infection through scratching or dry blood has been ever documented. Alt hough trace amounts of HIV are found in saliva, sweat, human waste, and tears, the viral load is too low to infect another person.
Laboratory-grown HIV when placed on a surface tends to dry over the next few hours and becomes noninfective by more than 90 percent, causing little to no risk of infecting another person.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not survive well outside the body. HIV transmission is only possible through certain body fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, rectal fluid, and breast milk. Intact skin is a 100 percent barrier to virus transmission. A needle prick that causes the blood to ooze, sexual contact, blood transfusion (which is extremely unlikely because all blood donors are screened for HIV and other blood-borne infections), or infection from a mother to her child during delivery are the ways through which HIV can be transmitted. There have been rare reports of HIV transmission through human bites deep enough to draw blood.
Many laboratories have used artificially high concentrations of laboratory-grown HIV to study how long and to what extent HIV survives on surfaces. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported that even fluids with the highest concentrations of HIV dries out over the next few hours and become noninfective to the tune of 90 to 99 percent. Thus, drying of the HIV-infected human blood or other body fluids reduces the theoretical risk of environmental transmission to essentially zero. HIV is unable to reproduce or divide outside its living host, except under strictly controlled laboratory conditions.
For some exposures, although transmission is biologically possible, the risk is so low that it is not possible to put a precise number on it. This includes deep kissing or indulging in oral sex.
The main routes for HIV transmission are as follows.
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