HIV to AIDS

[terryansimon]

I was doing some out-of-school Biology researchon AIDS, since we just learnt STDs and what not.

I was trying to find out about the life span of the AIDS virus when out of its host environment, when I chanced upon this website.

what do you guys think?

AIDS a myth?

its a massive site but its quite a good read.

[terryansimon]

Another conspiracy theory

[Tanzy]

Debating the HIV Myth

The Triumph of Unreason

Aids and Denial of Reality

It's all politics man. Politics...

I'll dare anyone who doesn't believe HIV causes AIDS to have the virus injected into their body and see if it cause AIDS like symptoms.

[terryansimon]

I second Tanzy. I just found them good reads, thats all.

not advocating that its false. *shudders*

eh Tanzy.. you have any literature on lifespan of the HIV virus? lifespan out of host environment that is...I'm suppose to do this presentation to debunk myth about people getting infected from sitting down in cinema seats and having the butts pricked with an infected needle.

[Tanzy]

What have you found so far?

[terryansimon]

amazingly, nothing much.

says some things like it is very fragile outside host and yada yada yada. debunks myth of spreading via mosquito bites/toilet seats. says has an almost zero chance of spreading via kissing/tears/sweat.

nothing about sitting down on needles. nothing about urban legends.

[Tanzy]

Just to start you off.

"Hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can all survive outside the human body for several weeks, with virus survival influenced by virus titer, volume of blood, ambient temperature, exposure to sunlight and humidity. HBV has the highest virus titers in untreated individuals and is viable for the most prolonged periods in needle syringes stored at room temperature."

Thompson SC, Boughton CR, Dore GJ., Blood-borne viruses and their survival in the environment: is public concern about community needlestick exposures justified?, Aust N Z J Public Health. 2003 Dec;27(6):602-7.

And this will be very relevant to you.

Barre-Sinoussi F, Nugebeyre MT, Chermann JC. Resistance of AIDS virus at room temperature. Lancet 1985;ii:721± 2

Edited April 16, 2004 by Tanzy

[Tanzy]

BACKGROUND: We intended to evaluate the stability of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 virions in whole blood and in culture medium. MATERIALS AND METHOD: EDTA whole-blood samples taken from 12 patients were left at room temperature for up to 7 days, and aliquots of a laboratory virus stock spiked in EDTA, in heparinized or in citrated whole blood, with or without the addition of Triton X-100, or spiked in culture medium were left at room temperature for up to 120 days before plasma was separated and frozen at -80 degrees C. Viral load was measured for all frozen plasma samples using different viral load assays. p24 antigen and infectivity were also measured in the spiked samples. RESULTS: The patient whole-blood samples did not show any decrease in viral load during this 7-day period. The spiked samples decayed by not more than 1 log after 120 days (about 4 months), with the fastest decay in medium. Virus infectivity decayed very slowly from 20,000 units mL-1 to undetectable amounts after 56 days. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that HIV-1 virions in whole blood possess a long-term stability in terms of viral load, p24 antigen level and infectivity, which is not sufficiently recognized by laboratory and health care workers.

Vandamme AM, Van Laethem K, Schmit JC, Van Wijngaerden E, Reynders M, Debyser Z, Witvrouw M, Van Ranst M, De Clercq E, Desmyter J., Long-term stability of human immunodeficiency virus viral load and infectivity in whole blood. Eur J Clin Invest. 1999 May;29(5):445-52

[dravan]

hmmm so HIV virus can survive outside the host for days.... but as what i have learned as i am a medical personal is that aids virus cannot survive for long unless it has a host

[blacknails]

HIV virus can ONLY survive for weeks outside a host ONLY IF ALL conditions are correct for its survival. For example 'virus titer, volume of blood, ambient temperature, exposure to sunlight and humidity'.. BUT in reality blood dries up and temperature ain't right and all so in almost all cases the virus dies once it touches air... Much like sperm.... Hmmmz..

[FuEl]

A virus in the first place is not even considered living...nor is it non-living. It has properties that could make it partly alive (coat proteins, RNA, etc)..but it does not have a nucleus. By definition all living organisms have a nucleus at cellular level. So by rights a virus is not classified as being alive, nor is it dead.

Anyway...Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus that attacks the T-helper cells of the immune system..as a result lowering the body's resistance to pathogenic agents. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is actually a generalization of the diseases caused by opportunistic infections due to lower resistance. So in theory, if you have HIV...but you can fight of opportunistic infections, then you could be said to be free of AIDS.

Complicated is'nt it?

[terryansimon]

that is a hypothetical situation Fuel....probably will never happen.

then again, it may have happened, hence all the AIDS conspiracy theory.