• Question: If someone with HIV spits in my mouth, can I contract it?

    Asked by jackpegram to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      No. That route wouldn’t work. Saliva is full of enzymes and inhibitors which are designed to kill “casual” visitors. This is logical if you think about it, you don’t really want to get infected by your dinner!

    • Photo: Ee Lyn Lim

      Ee Lyn Lim answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      HIV is actually quite bad at getting INTO people 😉 Once it gets into your bloodstream, then yes, you’re in deep trouble. But HIV is just not very good at getting past skin, even the thin sort on the inside of your mouth. Also, someone who has HIV wouldn’t have the virus in their saliva – if they spit BLOOD in your mouth there would be a higher risk – but still not that high unless you had cuts in your mouth. That’s why HIV is mainly transmitted when you poke yourself with a needle, through the placenta from mother to baby, or through the tiny tears in the skin that happen during sex.

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Hi jackpegram-

      what an awful thought!

      Thankfully it’d be almost impossible. Not meaning to be gross about it, but the person would have to have a big cut in their mouth and be spitting blood for it to be a possibility.

      This is because saliva is not a good place to be for HIV- it prefers blood, and this is why it is so easily transferred by shared needles and from HIV positive mothers to their unborn children 🙁

      Also, you’d have to have a big cut in your mouth too, but even then I think all the chemicals and enzymes in your mouth would see to it that it never got close!

      Even so, don’t let anyone spit in your mouth- its just gross!

Comments

  • Photo: Katy

    Katy commented on :

    No, you need a lot more contact than that to catch HIV – it is mostly passed on through sharing needles, sex or from mother to child. You can’t catch it from kissing, from swimming in a pool with someone with HIV or from them coughing or sneezing near you either.

    I wouldn’t recommend letting people spit in your mouth though…