Anxiety

[recentanxiety]

Dear Sir and Madame,

Since the beginning of this year, I was struck with a recurring anxiety about acquiring HIV from outside the body such as through surface contamination, cuts and bruises, mucous membrane exposure and such.

This is getting out of control and is having an adverse effect on my way of life. I never had a problem with anxiety like this before. I am only 24 years old. Frankly, its scaring me.

After reading through this forum, you mentioned many times that HIV becomes non-infectious instantly when outside the body due to the outer receptors getting damaged. However, I have spent hours upon hours on google and is unable to find any sources whatsoever which confirm this. Many "official" or "government" websites such as cdc.govt and AVERT simply states that "HIV does not survive long outside the body" and that it can transferred through a cut. What are the sources you utilized to say different to those websites?

I've been trying to find sources to dispel my anxiety for good but all these damn contradictions from the internet is just fueling my anxiety rather than solving it.

I recently stumbled onto your website and am really hoping that you can end this anxiety once and for all.

[Wade]

Hi ,
Your fears are unfounded and googling doesn't help.
Take some time and look around this web site and also the links at the bottom of my signature.  You will be surprised at what you will learn.

Best, Wade

[Jim Allen]

Hi

We provide risk assessment here and by the sounds of it you had no risk and you are looking for an answer why not. Now I can give it to you however by the sounds of it you need to talk to someone face to face.

Lets wrap up your "what if" by looking at only 1 of the hurdles for transmission in this fashion, let alone the rest of the dozen reasons why this is "never" going to be a risk to you.

Nobody has been infected by HIV from spillage (contact outside the human body) this makes sense and even this covers trust me the strange fear you have as well.  It is not published as a real world risk and no documented cases have been found in over 35 years into this epidemic. You are asking for proof of something that is absent, a 0! That is your epidemiology question answered and at this stage you should move on.

What we know is HIV is very fragile and so much so that well, nobody has been infected by it outside the human body through contact and this makes sense going back to basics for a moment HIV has an outer protein/receptors that are needed to remain infectious and they corrode on contact with air, so it can no longer infect.

This even poses a great problem to study it, and laboratory studies such as the ones at the CDC labs have to use unnaturally high and artificial laboratory-grown concentrations under precisely controlled and limited laboratory conditions to even study it, as it normally simply does not survive long in outside the body.  (Ask a lab how they do it, if you want to know more on how they artificially grow HIV as that part is beyond me)

Now the fact that in labs they can keep HIV viable outside the body has caused some people to misunderstand this to mean environmental risk is possible. This is not the case as the labs use artificial conditions and concentrations of HIV many times greater than than anything ever found in patient specimens, the amounts of virus studied are simply not found in nature, and again no one has been infected with HIV this way.

This was also published by the CDC a number of times over to name one example
Consumer Health USA By Alan M. Rees

Now I could list a dozen more references but it not going to help you as you are looking for a risk when there is none. Considering the way you fear HIV it is slightly insulting as it this irrational fear that you have that makes people think we are a danger when we are not. Trust me I live with my children and would not be putting them at risk if it was the case. Its not, you should have more fear from the flu that spreads easier and kills more.

So stop digging this hole for yourself and seek help. We have answered your question in detail and there is nothing more really to be added to this, i am not sure why you have this fear or why you are asking and its not my task to find out to be honest.

Kind regards

Jim

Please Note.
As a member of the AM I Infected Forum you are required to only post in this one thread no matter how long between visits or the subject matter. You can find this thread by going to your profile and selecting show own post and it will take you here . It helps us to help you when you keep all your thoughts or questions in one thread and it helps other readers to follow the discussion. Any additional threads will be deleted.
 

[recentanxiety]

Thank you for the swift replies.

Just to clarify - I need not worry about getting HIV at all from outside the environment. Does the quantity of blood matters though? I.e - will the virus be viable longer if there is more blood "protecting" it from drying?

Thank you for the source, Consumer Health USA by Alan M. Rees. I appreciate it. Though if it's no trouble, can you also kindly provide me with the source which states that the outer receptors of the virus corrodes upon exposure to air? That should really put all that damn anxiety to rest.

This will be my last post. I am sorry for all the trouble. I just want to get out of this state of mind.

[Jim Allen]

Thank you for the swift replies.

Just to clarify - I need not worry about getting HIV at all from outside the environment. Does the quantity of blood matters though? I.e - will the virus be viable longer if there is more blood "protecting" it from drying?

Asked and answered. 

Only with artificially high values not found it nature it would be a theoretical risk . In the real would you would not come into contact artificially lab grown high values.  Now what I will accept is if for some strange reason two nut cases have deep bleeding wounds the type that require medical attention and are actively bleeding and the two decide for "fun" to rub directly the open bleeding wounds into each other than it might be a theoretical (Not real world) risk.  Now why they would do that? I don't know.  Below you have my answer on this above.

Nobody has been infected by HIV from spillage (contact outside the human body) this makes sense and even this covers trust me the strange fear you have as well.  It is not published as a real world risk and no documented cases have been found in over 35 years into this epidemic. You are asking for proof of something that is absent, a 0! that is your epidemiology question answered and at this stage you should move on.

Now the fact that in labs they can keep HIV viable outside the body has caused some people to misunderstand this to mean environmental risk is possible. This is not the case as the labs use artificial conditions and concentrations of HIV many times greater than than anything ever found in patient specimens, the amounts of virus studied are simply not found in nature, and again no one has been infected with HIV this way.

Thank you for the source, Consumer Health USA by Alan M. Rees. I appreciate it. Though if it's no trouble, can you also kindly provide me with the source which states that the outer receptors of the virus corrodes upon exposure to air? That should really put all that damn anxiety to rest.

This will be my last post. I am sorry for all the trouble. I just want to get out of this state of mind.

Well I can't help you with the anxiety.
Like wade said stop googling.

Jim

Some References:

Wu L Biology of HIV mucosal transmission. Curr Opin HIV AIDS 3(5): 534-540, 2008

Gupta K et al. How do viral and host factors modulate the sexual transmission of HIV? Can transmission be blocked? PLoS Med 3(2): e79, 2006
CDC

Consumer Health USA by Alan M. Rees.

 

[recentanxiety]

Thank You.

Will move on from here.