Smoking blood particles

[nathanfgp]

Hi Drs, I have been reading this forum and I am grateful for all your insight. I need some clarification since I have read many posts similar to mine but not exactly the same. I was sharing a marijuana cigar with a friend, who has had unprotected sex, he was scratching at a pimple and made himself bleed and then wiped his hand on his pants slightly, but then also held the cigar with the same fingers. Is there any way that if any left over blood on his fingers got on the cigar and I inhaled it that i could be exposed to HIV? My question is not about the saliva/blood getting in my mouth and then my stomach, but rather if you literally smoked HIV positive blood that was on the cigar if that could infect you since it leads to your lungs and then the bloodstream. It might sound like a stretch but hearing your medical opinion will help me get over this.

[nathanfgp]

thank you Dr. Hook

[Edward W Hook, MD]

I cannot conceive that this is mechanism by which HIV could be transmitted.  The respiratory tract has many of the same defense mechanisms that the gastrointestinal tract has for preventing infection and the heat of the burning cigar/cigarette would kill HIV.  No one has ever suggested this as a mechanism of infection, nor is is=t at all likely,  this is not something for you to worry about at all.  

Please no follow-up "what if" or "why not" questions on this one.  Take care.  EWH