Scenario / Sharing Food

[Xtreme]

Can you get infected if you share food? I'm sure the answer will be "no", but say there was a group of people sharing a large peice of food, digging in with their spoons, and an HIV positive person was also digging into the same food. Let's say this person had some kind of sore/infection in his mouth as well, and is putting his/her spoon in the same food everyone else is digging into. I know this may sound absurd - but would the virus be present in this person's mouth bc of a sore/infection in their mouth/present on his spoon/survive on the food/able to infect? Or should it be deactivated at some point? Sorry if this sounds crazy.

[Teak]

You never had an exposure, move along.

[Xtreme]

Thx. I understand it becomes inactive once exposed to air, but I am reading that it actually becomes inactive when the fluid it is in becomes completely dry. I was just thinking if infected secretion (saliva or otherwise) were still a bit on the food - and you then injested the food....but I guess the food and air, time elapse etc would make it virtually inactive pretty almost immediately? Thanks - and I understand this sounds crazy - but a scenario like this actually happened - hence the concern.  Thanks again.

[RainLover71]

Not a chance.Hiv becomes inactive once exposed to air and therefore is unable to infect anyone.

[nursegirl6572]

No, it doesn't matter, cold hot or otherwise...sores or not.  NO risk.  HIV cannot be transmitted this way!

[Xtreme]

Thx. One last caveat - what if the food was actually something very cold - like ice cream/ice cream cake? I've read that heat will destroy the virus but it can survive in very cold temperatures. Would that make a difference in assessing a hypothetical risk?

[LIZZIE LOU]

hiv is not transmitted in the manner that you've described.

[agoodadvicer]

no chance...very very rare chance