How Long Does HIV Live Outside the Human Body?
How Long Does HIV Live Outside the Human Body?One of the most common questions we get here at About.com’s HIV site is regarding HIV and how long it lives outside the human body. People get concerned about touching someone or something and getting HIV-infected blood on their hands and becoming infected with HIV. Fortunately, HIV just doesn’t infect the human body in that way.Answer: Studies have proven time and time again that HIV does not survive well outside the human body. In artificially high concentrations produced in the lab, HIV drying that occurs outside of the body reduces the number of infectious viral particles by 99 percent in just a few hours. Since the concentration of HIV in blood or other bodily fluids is much lower, HIV drying outside the human body virtually eliminates all infectious HIV particles therefore making the risk of HIV infection from blood or bodily fluids outside the body essentially zero. Keep in mind that while HIV infection from infectious bodily fluids
