Question?!?

how long can HIV live outside of the body?

Cut and Paste...

Scientists and medical authorities agree that HIV does not survive well in the environment, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote. HIV is found in varying concentrations or amounts in blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, saliva, and tears. (See below, Saliva, Tears, and Sweat.) In order to obtain data on the survival of HIV, laboratory studies have required the use of artificially high concentrations of laboratory-grown virus. Although these unnatural concentrations of HIV can be kept alive under precisely controlled and limited laboratory conditions, CDC studies have showned that drying of even these high concentrations of HIV reduces the number of infectious viruses by 90 to 99 percent within several hours. Since the HIV concentrations used in laboratory studies are much higher than those actually found in blood or other specimens, drying of HIV- infected human blood or other body fluids reduces the theoretical risk of environmental transmission to that which has been observed--essentially zero.

Incorrect interpretation of conclusions drawn from laboratory studies have alarmed people unnecessarily. Results from laboratory studies should not be used to determine specific personal risk of infection because 1) the amount of virus studied is not found in human specimens or anyplace else in nature, and 2) no one has been identified with HIV due to contact with an environmental surface; Additionally, since HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host (unlike many bacteria or fungi, which may do so under suitable conditions), except under laboratory conditions, it does not spread or maintain infectiousness outside its host.

HIV is sensitive to fluctuations in temperature and the presence of oxygen. One place that HIV has been know to survive in is drug injection syringes since these are airtight and often contain blood from the injector.

It dies if exposed to air. It can live in blood in a hypodermic needle for a while I guess..but it's really a fragile virus outside the body...thank god or we'd all have it.

If oxygen reaches it, it dies.

I'm not sure of the exact amount of time, but I am sure it's going to be less than an hour under most circumstances. It could last longer if it's in a container of bodily fluids where an effort has been made to maintain normal body temperature--like blood donations.

I agree with heather j. Just that she said really alot.

Not very long at all. probably a matter of minutes at best.