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Date: | Wed, 3 Aug 2011 16:56:21 +0200 |
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I **believed** that HIV is a rather fragile virus, but I **knew** little, so
I decided to look it up before commenting.
From the WHO page http://www.who.int/hiv/abouthiv/en/ :
"HIV is easily killed outside the human body and therefore can only be
transmitted directly from person to person, either by sexual contact,
exchange of blood or body fluids or from mother to child. Sexual
transmission of the HIV is relatively inefficient and repeated unprotected
exposures are normally required."
Then there is something from the CDC, quoted on
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/insite?page=ask-01-10-20 :
"Scientists and medical authorities agree that HIV does not survive well in
the environment, making the possibility of environmental transmission
remote. (snip)
In order to obtain data on the survival of HIV, laboratory studies have
required the use of artificially high concentrations of laboratory-grown
virus. Although these unnatural concentrations of HIV can be kept alive
under precisely controlled and limited laboratory conditions, CDC studies
have shown that drying of even these high concentrations of HIV reduces the
number of infectious viruses by 90 to 99 percent within several hours. Since
the HIV concentrations used in laboratory studies are much higher than those
actually found in blood or other specimens, drying of HIV- infected human
blood or other body fluids reduces the theoretical risk of environmental
transmission to that which has been observed--essentially zero."
But here is an interesting part:
"HIV is sensitive to fluctuations in temperature and the presence of oxygen.
One place that HIV has been know to survive in is drug injection syringes
since these are airtight and often contain blood from the injector."
I would like to know more about how long that survival was....I now gather
that DRYING and HEAT and OXYGEN denature HIV, but what about when it remains
wet? Do pumps remain wet enough inside? And those that are air tight
wouldn't be getting milk inside anyway, would they? Is there as much HIV
in infected breast milk as in blood?? More to learn, though I suspect that
good research would show it is not an issue in pumps. There are possibly
other more infectious things in there, like mould and bacteria!
The different types of hepatitis viruses make that question tricky as well.
I will settle on investigating Hep B for now, which for some reason I have
always feared more than any other:
From the CDC http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/b/bfaq.htm
"Hepatitis B virus can survive outside the body at least 7 days. During that
time, the virus can still cause infection if it enters the body of a person
who is not infected."
"All blood spills - including those that have already dried - should be
cleaned and disinfected with a mixture of bleach and water (one part
household bleach to 10 parts water). Gloves should always be used when
cleaning up any blood spills. Even dried blood can present a risk to
others."
Certainly doesn't sound like the virus could live for months to me, but I
agree, it's easy to keep worrying about it. Would a test now show that
there has been an infection at this stage.... what about the "window
period"? Common sense tells me that the incidence of either virus in USA (I
assume that's where the mother is) is too low, and perhaps lower still that
the infected person would be using a breast pump.
Best wishes
Jacquie Nutt IBCLC
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