Question
For how long the virus is able to infect?
4 January 2008. Related: All topics.
1 What is the reason HIV virus is not transmitted by mosquitoes?
2 How long HIV virues alive at open air eg. at medical blades ? What about in wet materials ?
3 If blood with HIV is dilluted in water will the virus be alive for a long time or not? Explain the reason.
Answer
1. Mosquitoes feed on the blood, they do not inject it in the next person they suck blood from, hence they cannot infect.
2. HIV is quite unstable in open air (oxygen medium). The latest studies show that it survives only for several minutes. In wet materials the time may be longer, depending on what the wet material is soaked in. Still, the safety advice is that cutting instruments and needles/syringes/cookery for drug use, should not be shared (the syringe is a closed container and the virus survives longer)
3. Water is H2O. O stands for oxygen. Therefore the virus’s ability to infect will be affected soon. I, personally, have not read any study that compares infectivity of the virus in open air and water.
Hi Jerry,
The simple answer is no. For more info on how HIV is transmitted please see Q1 here:
https://i-base.info/qa/what-are-the-most-asked-questions
Can some one get HIV virus through food?
Yes, the virus on a medical blade will also stop being infective after some time as it is exposed to open air.
A good material on HIV is the i-Base Treatment manual: http://www.i-base.info/manual/en/index.html
Hi Svilen Konov. Thanks for your good and clear response. If I may clarify my question 1, I have the information that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes and that is why I thought that mosquitoes can transmit HIV.
2. If the virues is exposed to air, you say that its ability to infect will affected. If the virues is on medical blade it also may not servive if you can explain it briefly or inform me which kind of book shall I read. Thank you.