Can HIV be transmitted in household settings?
HIV is overwhelmingly transmitted through sexual contact, through intravenous drug use, through infected blood donations and from mother to child during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. HIV is not transmitted through everyday social contact. There have however been a few cases in which it is thought that family members have infected each other through ways other than those stated above. Whilst HIV transmission between family members and members of the same household is possible, it occurs in extremely low numbers and documented cases are very rare.
HIV is overwhelmingly transmitted either through sexual contact, through intravenous drug-use, through infected blood donations or from mother to child during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding. HIV is not transmitted through everyday social contact. There have however been a few cases whereby it is thought that family members have infected each other through ways other than those stated above. A case in Australia in the late 1990’s involved two sisters. Both tested positive within a month of each other. The risk contact for the older sister was identified as being sexual contact she had with a Russian man. The younger sister had not had any obvious risk exposures, and through interview, the conclusion was made that the only possible risk exposure was the fact that they shared a razor to shave their legs. Analysis of the type of virus they had concluded that they did have the same Russian virus strain, not commonly found in Australia. The other case involved a mother and son, again in A
HIV is overwhelmingly transmitted through sexual contact, through intravenous drug use, through infected blood donations and from mother to child during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. HIV is not transmitted through everyday social contact. There have however been a few cases in which it is thought that family members have infected each other through ways other than those stated above. A case in Australia in the late 1990s involved two sisters. Both tested positive within a month of each other. The risk exposure for the older sister was identified as being sexual contact she had with a Russian man. The younger sister had had no obvious risk exposures, and investigators concluded that the only possible risk exposure was them sharing a razor to shave their legs. Further analysis established that they did have the same Russian virus strain, not commonly found in Australia. The other case involved a mother and son, again in Australia, who both tested HIV positive. He had had risk expos
