Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

[deleted] t1_j3fu6st wrote

Reply to comment by cristiano-potato in How long does HIV remain infectious outside the body? by Terradubia

[removed]

14

Gohron t1_j3fxdaz wrote

My understanding is that it is not even common to pass it on sexually. Perhaps there is more recent info but I recall reading research before that transmission from an infected person to a non-infected person was 1% or less (though this number varied based on the type of sex and who the infectious one was) per sexual encounter.

8

VadPuma t1_j3g132f wrote

To be clear, if the HIV+ person is under treatment and is "Undetectable", there have been no cases of transmission -- none, never, even with unprotected sex.

Although since medicine never says never, it is still recommended to use condoms.

I have no idea of the transmission rate between an HIV+ person and an as-yet infected person, such research would be unethical in the extreme. But it would depend on the viral load of the infected person, the type of sex, etc. Many factors.

The question of the virus living outside the body is anything from minutes to days (is the area in full sun, is it subjected to temperature differences/extremes, is the area being cleaned at all, etc.). Many factors. One thing would be difficult though is having the virus get from this point into a mucosal lining of another human.

Anyway, I am sure there is context to the question being asked that would allow for a more scientific answer.

11

kjhwkejhkhdsfkjhsdkf t1_j3glqj4 wrote

Yeah, it's pretty low, especially for a male having vaginal sex with an infected female.

What was really shocking to me is that when I was growing up just as the AIDS epidemic really took off in the 80s, I was under the impression that heterosexual transmission was extremely high, to the point where if you had sex with an infected person it was basically a death sentence. When I read actual transmission statistics decades later I was surprised that they're actually that low, relatively speaking to what I thought they were before.

IIRC a lot of this came from men infected with HIV that wanted to keep the fact they have sex with other men secret, so they attributed catching it to some unnamed female prostitute, and this skewed transmission statistics in M-F sex.

3