ACSA, Frequently Asked Questions

What is the risk of getting HIV from saliva?
What is the risk of getting HIV from oral sex?
What is the risk of getting HIV from giving or receiving a blood transfusion?
How long does the virus survive outside of the body?
Am I at risk of contracting HIV through day-to-day contact or by caring for a person with HIV or AIDS?
Why can't I be infected with HIV through day-to-day contact or while caring for a person with HIV or AIDS?
How can I tell if someone has HIV or AIDS?
What is the blood test for HIV/AIDS?
How can I get a completely accurate test result?
What happens after a person is infected with HIV?
Can a person who is HIV positive still have safe sex?
We only have one syringe and needle for the two of us. What should we do if we want to be safe?
What should I do if there is an accident involving blood?

What is the risk of getting HIV from saliva?

There is no risk of contracting HIV from the saliva of an HIV positive person. This is because HIV infection is only possible when a sufficient quantity of the virus enters your bloodstream. For this to happen with saliva, around a litre and a half would have to be injected or swallowed. If saliva enters your mouth through, for example, kissing an HIV positive person, your own saliva will dilute theirs and the stomach acids will kill the virus.

What is the risk of getting HIV from oral sex?

The risk of getting HIV from oral sex is very low. Of the millions of HIV infections in the world only two or three are thought to have been acquired from oral sex.

Oral sex is only a risk if there is the possibility of HIV positive blood, HIV positive semen, or HIV positive vaginal fluid coming directly into contact with another person’s blood.

If you swallow blood, semen or vaginal fluids the gastric juices and stomach acids will destroy the virus. However, if there are bleeding sores in the mouth, gum disease, or cut lips, for example, there is a theoretical possibility of transmission.

What is the risk of getting HIV from giving or receiving a blood transfusion?

As a clean needle is used for each blood donor, giving blood is completely safe.

All blood donated at Australian blood banks is thoroughly screened for HIV. Any blood that shows traces of HIV antibodies is destroyed. Because of this, receiving a blood transfusion from the Australian blood supply is considered safe. No one has contracted HIV through receiving a blood transfusion since screening began in 1985.

How long does the virus survive outside of the body?

HIV is very fragile. Unlike some other viruses (e.g. hepatitis C), HIV will not survive outside the body for very long. As soon as it leaves the body and is exposed to air, the virus will start to die, particularly if there is only a small quantity of blood, semen or vaginal fluid involved. Soap and water, shaving cream and ordinary disinfectants will certainly kill the virus if they come into contact with infected body fluid.

Am I at risk of contracting HIV through day-to-day contact or by caring for a person with HIV or AIDS?

There is no risk of contracting HIV through normal day-to-day activity or by caring for a person with HIV or AIDS. For example, you cannot contract HIV through:

shaking hands with someone
being sneezed or coughed on
using toilet seats, telephones, pens or paper
sharing food, drink, cups, cutlery, towels or a bed
washing, massaging or rubbing someone
being in the same room with someone

Throughout the AIDS epidemic hundreds of thousands of people have lived with, hugged, kissed and cared for family members, lovers and friends with HIV. If this type of activity was risky there would be millions more HIV positive people than there are.

Why can't I be infected with HIV through day-to-day contact or while caring for a person with HIV or AIDS?

HIV needs to get directly into your bloodstream for it to have a chance of infecting you (see How do you get HIV? ). HIV is also very fragile and will not live outside the body for very long (see How long does the virus survive outside the body?).

How can I tell if someone has HIV or AIDS?

You cannot tell if someone has HIV or AIDS just by looking at them. People who are HIV positive may look normal and feel well for many years. The only way to tell if someone is HIV-positive is by a blood test for HIV antibodies (see What is the blood test for HIV/AIDS?).

What is the blood test for HIV/AIDS?

When a person is infected with HIV their blood will produce specific antibodies in response to the virus. It is assumed that if a person’s blood contains these antibodies it is because it also contains HIV. If there is no HIV, then there are no HIV antibodies.

Unfortunately the blood can take some time to produce a sufficient quantity of these antibodies to be detected in a blood test. In 99% of people the maximum period this takes is 12 weeks (3 months). The period following infection during which HIV antibodies cannot be detected is called the window period.

A positive result means that the blood contains HIV antibodies and therefore contains HIV.

A negative result means that no HIV antibodies can be found in the blood because either:

there is no HIV in the blood
the infection has occurred so recently that the blood has not yet produced a sufficient quantity of HIV antibodies to be detected (seroconversion) i.e. the test has been taken during the window period

How can I get a completely accurate test result?

If you have a test and the result is positive, this result will be accurate.

If you have a test and the result is negative, and you have not engaged in any unsafe behaviour in the past 12 weeks, then the result will be accurate. If, however, you believe that you may have recently been exposed to infection you should have another follow up test no earlier than 12 weeks after the first. If this result is also negative then chances are that you will not have been infected with HIV.

What happens after a person is infected with HIV?

It is important to understand that once a person has contracted HIV they will react to the infection in an individual way. There is no certainty about what will happen to a person’s health because so many different factors can be involved.

Since the reaction to HIV infection is so varied, the use of the term ‘stages’ in describing the progress of HIV and AIDS is no longer considered very useful. For example, not all people will progress through a ‘stage 3’, and many people will experience symptoms of ‘stage 4’ infection but not be described as ‘having AIDS’ for many years.

A better method of explaining the progress of HIV to AIDS is to think in terms of categories of HIV illness. These are:

category 1 (seroconversion)
category 2 (asymptomatic)
category 3 (symptomatic)
category 4 (AIDS-defining)

Can a person who is HIV positive still have safe sex?

Of course. That is what ‘safe sex’ is all about. Any sexual practice not involving the exchange of blood, semen or vaginal fluids is considered safe. If a condom and water-based lubricant is used properly during vaginal or anal intercourse, the chance of contracting HIV is tiny.

We only have one syringe and needle for the two of us. What should we do if we want to be safe?

Sharing or re-using syringes and needles (‘fits’) is not safe and therefore not recommended. Clean fits are available from a range of Clean Needle Program (‘needle exchange’) outlets throughout Adelaide, free with no questions asked. They can also be bought at some chemists for a small cost.

Cleaning a used needle and syringe with full strength bleach will make re-using them safer. However, it will not guarantee the removal of all blood borne contaminants and therefore is not recommended by SAVIVE, the injecting drug users’ program of the AIDS Council of South Australia. Contact SAVIVE for more information about this.

By far the best thing to do is to keep clean fits handy at all times. It is not an offence to carry injecting equipment!

What should I do if there is an accident involving blood?

If you are ever required to give first aid, or if there is an accident involving blood, you should treat all blood as if it were infectious.
To protect yourself, standard infection control precautions should always be followed:

wear disposable gloves
wash the relevant surface with disinfectant (ordinary household bleach is adequate)
cover open cuts or sores with a water proof bandage
dispose of waste matter (rags, soiled paper, etc.) in a sealed plastic bag
wash and dry soiled towels, clothes and linen as normal