Don't Get Stuck With HIV

With more testing, more people are finding they are HIV-positive despite not having any sex risks. This may be the beginning of the end of Africa’s HIV/AIDS disasters — as people begin to see that a lot of HIV infections came from skin-piercing procedures during healthcare and cosmetic services.

This website is an attempt to help people understand their risks and their infections.

HIV transmits more easily through skin-piercing events than it does it does through sex (click here for more information on bloodborne transmission risks).

If a re-used instrument has trace amounts of blood, boiling will kill HIV. Otherwise, HIV can live in dry blood (for example, on a razor) for hours; and in wet blood (for example in a reused syringe) for weeks.[1][2][3]

How can you protect yourself from HIV when you get an injection, tattoo, manicure or other skin-piercing procedure? Use the menu on the right to find information about specific procedures.

Governments in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North Africa — but not in sub-Saharan Africa — investigated more than a dozen outbreaks of HIV through unsafe healthcare. For a country-by-country account of investigated outbreaks — and unexplained cases governments have ignored — click on: Outbreaks and unexplained cases in the menu on the right.

You or someone you know may be a victim of common errors in HIV/AIDS programs in Africa, errors that stem from unethical and incomplete research.

Worry about skin-piercing instruments, but DON’T WORRY ABOUT THINGS WITH NO RISK! You won’t get HIV from bug bites. Casual contact is safe! Hugging, kissing, eating together, sharing a wash-basin or swimming pool, and other everyday activities are safe. They are safe because people with HIV have skin that keeps the virus in, and others have skin that keeps the virus out.

References

1. NAM aidsmap. Survival outside the body. Available at: http://www.aidsmap.com/Survival-outside-the-body/page/1321278/ (accessed 4 March 2018).

2. Kramer A, Schwebke I, Kampf G. How long do nosocomial pathogens persist on inanimate surfaces? A systematic review. BMC Infect Dis 2006; 6: 130. Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/6/130 (accessed 30August 2013).

3. Centers for Disease Control. Recommendations for prevention of HIV transmission in health-care settings. MMWR 1987; 36 (suppl 2S). Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00023587.htm (accessed 7 January 2011).