This article I found on thebody.com Quite an interesting page. Anyways, here goes:
10 Common Fears About HIV Transmission:
10. Swimming in a Pool
You'd be amazed how many people write to our experts worried about HIV entering their bodies via blood or urine in a pool. HIV is not transmitted through water, period -- it doesn't matter whether you're standing in it, bathing in it or drinking gallons of it. (That also goes for hot tubs, showers, the sink at the gas station -- you name it!)9. Coughing or Sneezing
Many people still find danger in simply being in the vicinity of someone who is HIV positive. But there's no need to be afraid of being near people with HIV!HIV is not an airborne disease and cannot be transmitted even if someone with HIV coughs or sneezes directly in your face or onto your food. If it were that easy to pass along HIV, the number of people living with the virus today would probably be in the billions, not the millions.
8. Chewing Gum
Whether it's merely touching an old piece of chewed-up gum or transferring a wad of it from your HIV-positive friend's mouth to yours, gum does not represent an HIV risk. HIV is not transmitted through saliva; this is why you can also share food, drinks or utensils with HIV-positive people and not worry about becoming infected.7. Mosquito Bites
What if a mosquito bites an HIV-positive person and then feasts on you? If a mosquito can transmit malaria, it can transmit HIV too, right? Wrong! Malaria is a very different kind of disease than HIV.Even if HIV could survive long enough in the extracted blood, there would be so little HIV in there that you'd have no risk of being infected by it if you were the mosquito's next victim -- even if you squashed that sucker on your arm, blood-filled stomach and all.
6. Public Restrooms
Did you forget to put down toilet paper on the seat before using the potty? No need to run out for an HIV test.Even if a disgusting bodily fluid left on the seat were somehow able to get into your bloodstream (which is virtually impossible as it is -- and no, "up-splashing" does not put you at risk either), the HIV within that fluid wouldn't survive long enough outside of the body to harm you. Not only that, but there wouldn't be enough HIV in that small amount of fluid to pose an infection risk.
5. Eating at a Restaurant
For some reason, restaurants make the imagination run wild. People write in with an endless string of scenarios, including a chef's accidental slip of the knife, a waitress with a scratch on her hand, and a piece of food that briefly fell off someone's plate and touched the table.But here are the facts: In all of those infectious fantasies, there simply wouldn't be enough HIV present to pose a risk. (In most of them, there's zero chance that HIV would be present at all.) In addition, HIV doesn't live long enough outside of the body for any restaurant scenario to carry a risk -- that is, unless you run off and have unprotected sex with the waiter.
4. Getting a Lap Dance
Oh, if only we had a dollar tucked in our G-string for every person who's written in after a visit to a strip club. (And it's not solely the clients who fear the wrath of the lap!) Lap dances -- and most other strip club encounters -- bear absolutely no risk for one huge reason: at least one of you is wearing clothing on top of your happy parts, and no bodily fluids are being exchanged. (Even if you think you felt a little bit of wetness on your skin, that doesn't count as "exchanging fluids.")With no opportunity for an exchange of bodily fluids, there is nothing to fear.
3. Sharing a Drinking Glass
Pure and simple: Saliva is not one of the four bodily fluids that can transmit the virus. That list is reserved for blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. So unless you were drinking a large, frothy glass of any of those, you have nothing to worry about.2. Shaking Hands
Shaking hands is considered "casual contact" and absolutely does not put you at risk for contracting HIV. It doesn't matter if the shaking involved hands (yours, theirs or both) that were peeling, sweaty, dirty, or had cuts on them.The same goes for other common concerns, such as hugging someone, being scratched or even being bitten (unless the bite is very deep, meaning it went all the way through your skin -- and even then, any potential risk would be extremely small).
1. Kissing
Of all the issues our experts are asked about, none is the source of more unwarranted freak-outs than kissing. The act of kissing on its own carries no risk for HIV. It doesn't matter whether it's a peck on the cheek or deep tongue-on-tongue action. (And no, you can't transmit HIV through cold sores.)The only kissing scenario that would involve even a remote risk would be where fresh blood was exchanged -- and unless you're dating a vampire, that kind of thing is extremely unlikely to happen.
Was this article not enough to ease your fears? For more information, please visit our "Ask the Experts" Q&A forum or read this comprehensive fact sheet.
Once again I did not write this article and in no way do I wish to take credit for it. This is solely to educate the less educated.
I hoped you enjoy and can breathe now. I will go back to watching Dawson's Creek. I know, pretty lame for a Saturday night right? Well I don't feel like leaving the comfort of my warm bed/room/apt.
Good Night and remember whatever you do, it's okay to kiss a random stranger tonight, unless he turns out to be a serial killer and then you are on your own. HA HA!
Niters.
Sleepless
