This Month's HIV/AIDS Facts

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Question: I live with someone who has HIV. What precautions should I take?

Basic Answer: It is important to avoid contact with the person’s blood (and other body fluids containing blood), semen, vaginal fluid or breast milk. But people can share food, phones, dishes, clothes, bathrooms and swimming pools (to name a few) without putting themselves at risk of HIV infection.

Detailed Answer: HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) cannot be transmitted through casual contact. People can share food, phones, dishes, clothes and bathrooms (to name a few) without risk. People can also share swimming pools.

It is important to avoid contact with the blood, semen, vaginal fluid or breast milk of a housemate who has HIV. If blood is visible in any body fluid, people should wear latex, vinyl or nitrile disposable gloves when cleaning it up. (Rubber or plastic gloves need to be available for giving first aid for cuts or for cleaning up blood spills.) A fresh solution of chlorine bleach and water (one-fourth cup of bleach to one gallon of water) can be used to clean up any contaminated areas. (This is a convenient measure close to the recommended 1:100 ratio, equivalent to 500 ppm.*) Other disinfectants are fine to use, but bleach is easily available and inexpensive. People should wash their hands with soap and water after removing their gloves when they have finished cleaning up a blood spill.

Because other germs can be passed through urine or feces, people should also avoid contact with a housemate’s urine or feces.

*ppm stands for part per million; 1 ppm = 1/ 1,000,000

SOURCES:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Caring for Someone with AIDS at Home. June 2001.
• Peiperl, L. and Volberding, P., eds. The HIV Insite Knowledge Base: An On-line Textbook from the University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco General Hospital, 2001. Available at: http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite.jsp?page=KB.
• DeVita, V., Jr., et al., eds. AIDS: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention, 4th ed. 1997.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MMWR, 1994; vol. 43, no. 19.

For current statistics, contact the CDC National AIDS Hotline (800/342-AIDS), Spanish (800/344-7432), TTY/TDD (800/243-7889); the CDC Voice and Fax Information System (888/232-3228); the CDC National Prevention Information Network (800/458-5231) or its Web site at www.cdcnpin.org; or the CDC HIV/AIDS Web site at www.cdc.gov/hiv/dhap.htm.