Ask A Scientist© Molecular Biology Archive

>
> >>  name       Richard
> >>  status     other
> >>  age        40s
> >>  EMAIL
> >>  Question - Does the aids virus die once it is airborne? Obviously it
> >>can be transmitted via the exchnage of bodily fluids but, if the infected
> >>persons fluids are exposed to air outside the body, does the virus
> >>survive?
> >
>
>HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS, is an enveloped virus. That means it's
>surrounded by a lipid membrane. In other words, it's wearing a coat of the
>same material that surrounds living cells. That's sturdy enough inside a
>body, but not outside in the rest of the world. If the virus should be
>coughed into the air, or spilled onto a surface like a toilet seat, it would
>not survive long enough to infect anybody.
>
>Christine Ticknor
>Ph.D. Candidate
>Yale University
>New Haven, Connecticut
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>No, it's really a delicate little thing, which is why the AIDS epidemic
>isn't much worse. If the disease were easier to transmit, we'd be in big
>trouble.
>
>Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
>Assistant Director
>PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois

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>According to everything I've read, the HIV virus is actually quite fragile
>and can't live long at all outside a host white blood cell. It is easily
>disinfected and doesn't live on inanimate objects and can't be carried by the
>air. The only way to get HIV is for an infected white blood cell from one
>host to be directly deposited into the bloodstream of another host.

Bradburn
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>According to everything I've read, the HIV virus is actually quite fragile
>and can't live long at all outside a host white blood cell. It is easily
>disinfected and doesn't live on inanimate objects and can't be carried by the
>air. The only way to get HIV is for an infected white blood cell from one
>host to be directly deposited into the bloodstream of another host.


Van Hoeck
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