Can HIV live outside of the body?
365669
no viruses need host cells to invade...they inject their dna in to your cells to clone itself...with out a host it has no chance to clone...and viruses are complex chemicals which the scientific community accepts as nonliving
758211
HIV will survive as long as the blood is still wet. If the blood has dried, the HIV virus is no longer alive. keep in mind, the outer layer of the blood could be dry and appear dry, but underneath may still be wet. also, the infected blood would need to get into the blood stream of another person in order to pass on the infection.
430852
because HIV gets inside your cells and reprograms them to produce the HIV virus.  Your body doesnt attack the cells that it recognizes as its own so the virus is not destroyed.
105494
Actually, nothing happens to a person w/ HIV......  It's only when it turns into full-blown AIDS that the body's immune system is compromised, then the person could get sick and die from any one of a zillion diseases, because the body cannot fight them off.
205021
There is no proof for such possibility. The virus has a very weak environmental susceptibility and is not able to be transmitted via contaminated surfaces. Modes of transmission are sexual, vertical, blood or blood components transfusion, broken skin+infected blood and contaminated needles used by injection drug users.\nThe disease is diagnosed when an opportunistic infection e.g. P Cranii P or malignancy e.g. K. Sarcoma are detected, HIV antibodies in the blood and the increased numbers of T cells in the blood.
297067
How about next to impossible?  Take into consideration, as others have said - HIV dies really quickly once it hits the air.\n\nCooking would absolutely kill the virus.  HIV does not survive above a temp of about 110 degrees.\n\nLastly, what kind of food is it?  Salt (which is in almost everything,) salad dressings, citrus, tomato, sugar, etc. would all kill the virus on contact.\n\nYou may have heard the story about people putting HIV+ blood in ketchup bottles.  That's a myth.  Even if the virus didn't die in the air, the vinegar, sodium and acids in the ketchup would kill HIV right away.\n\nThe only way to be infected would be if the blood was absolutely fresh, and you had a cut in your mouth, the virus didn't degrade from the food or your saliva, & the virus miraculously found it's way in.  Don't worry - food is safe!
517498
I would say yes. You progess from HIV to AIDs at a point when your immune system becomes severely comprimised. For an erderly person, this point will arrive sooner due to them having a weaker immune system. HIV mainly targets T cells (but will have a go at any CD4 receptors) and so the T cell count is the one to look at. As for when - there is no way to say for sure. There are guideline figures, but they are only estimates. Check out the website in the sources list, then click on the virology banner, then pathogenisis of AIDs. This is my uni microbiology homepage, and is a good reliable source of information.
619170
The AIDS virus - HIV , is found in the blood and because most body fluids( breast milk,sweat, tears, saliva , semen , vaginal secretions ) are (or contain) an ultrafiltrate of blood, there's a theoratical possibility of finding the virus in all types of body fluids. Having said that , I would like to state that HIV has NEVER EVER been recovered from SWEAT - hence, physical contact wouldn't result in transmission of virus.\nThere have been reports of recovery of the virus from TEARS & SALIVA, but in very low quantities. It is important to understand that finding a small amount of HIV in a body fluid does not necessarily mean that HIV can be transmitted  by that body fluid.At the same time, contact with saliva, tears, or sweat has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.\n\nHaving spelt out the facts (or observations!), my personal advice would be to avoid giving a deep kiss (exchange of saliva) to any HIV+ person. There are other better and safer ways to express affection to an individual , so why take the unnecessary risk.
919659
AIDS is the disease caused by the HIV virus.\n\nYou can get infected with HIV if the virus passes into your body from someone else who is already infected.\n\nThere are two main ways this can happen:\n\n1. Through having unprotected (no condom) vaginal or anal sex with someone who has HIV. Oral sex carries a small risk of transmission. There has never been a reported case of transmission through kissing (even deep kissing).\n\n2. Through someone else's infected blood getting directly into your bloodstream, for example through sharing drug or tattoo needles or injecting equipment, or piercing with unsterile equipment. In the first half of the 1980s a number of people were infected from contaminated blood transfusions, but this is very rare now because blood donations are screened. Sometimes HIV is passed from an infected mother to her foetus either in the womb or during birth.\n\nYou CANNOT get HIV through normal non sexual contact, or from sharing eating utensils or from mosquitoes.
152343
HIV does not survive well outside of the human body. This really smells like an urban legend.
529533
Yes.  The reason HIV is spread through sex is because the tissues in "those" areas are susceptible to microscopic tearing because of the repetitive friction of sexual activities.  The "cuts" are so small, most people aren't even aware of them.
102358
AIDS is a syndrome associated with the HIV virus, which has been isolated to a population of chimps in Africa. How it transferred from chimps to humans is anyone's guess, but my assumption would be that it was not through Homo-Pan sexual relations. I suppose the virus could pass through eating raw infected meat.
922113
HIV dies almost immediately upon exposure to air.  It can not live outside the body.\n\nHIV is found in many bodily fluids; it doesn't matter if you're having intercourse or merely "fingering".  HIV is found in vaginal fluids, semen, and blood.  It doesn't suddenly decide to appear because you're having intercourse; it's always there.
1187759
You can get infected with a different strain of the virus.  The HIV virus mutants.
145860
No, mosquitoes cannot transmit AIDS. This is because in order for it to transfer, it would have to stay alive inside the mosquito, but it's block by it's salivary glands, so it's like, killed. This is the way for them to survive. Any mosquito that sucks an HIV positive blood, would completely kill the virus so it doesn't harm themselves. Learned this today in Science! I'm so proud I learned something!
269352
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes AIDS is transmitted through body fluids in particular blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. Transmission of HIV takes place in four ways: \nunprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner (the most common); \nsharing needles when injecting or other use of contaminated injection or other skin- piercing equipment; \nblood and blood products through, for example, infected transfusions and organ or tissue transplants, \ntransmission from infected mother to child in the womb or at birth and breastfeeding. \nHIV is not transmitted by casual physical contact, coughing, sneezing and kissing, by sharing toilet and washing facilities, by using eating utensils or consuming food and beverages handled by someone who has HIV; it is not spread by mosquitoes or other insect bites.
835862
Good grief, you need some basic understanding of human anatomy: without a blood supply nothing can live outside the human body. When organs are transplanted they are held suspended on ice in coolers in solutions made to mimic body fluids.  Kidneys cannot live outside the human body and must be connected to a blood supply to function.\n\n A fish breathes water through its gills and cannot live on land unless it is amphibian, in which case it is not a fish. A fish is nothing remotely resembling a human kidney.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibian