Can you get hiv from toilet seat: Can You Get HIV from a Toilet Seat? What the Science Says

09.02.202120.07.2023 by alexxlab

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Can You Get HIV from a Toilet Seat? What the Science Says

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Medically reviewed by Jill Seladi-Schulman, Ph. D. — By Rachael Zimlich, RN, BSN on May 10, 2021

HIV is a virus that can weaken the immune system. Over the past few decades since the virus has surfaced, the medical community has learned a lot about how it can and can’t be transmitted.

One myth that has been busted is that HIV can be transmitted through blood or urine on a toilet seat. This is false, and this article explains why.

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is spread primarily through some bodily fluids. The virus must directly enter your bloodstream for infection to occur. Though transmission can occur in several ways, a toilet seat is not one of them.

Though HIV can live in a body, it doesn’t survive long in the air or on hard surfaces. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HIV becomes nearly 100 percent inactive within hours once outside of a body.

To contract HIV from a toilet seat, you’d have to have an open wound or exposed mucous membrane in which the bodily fluid on the seat could enter your body. Mucous membranes can be found in the genitals, rectum, and mouth.

Typical cleaning methods, which are used even in healthcare settings, are recommended to remove the virus from hard surfaces — not special sterilization techniques.

HIV can be transmitted through a number of bodily fluids, including:

blood
semen
pre-ejaculate (or pre-cum)
rectal fluids
vaginal secretions
breast milk

Still, even if the virus is in these fluids, it doesn’t mean transmission is guaranteed. The fluids have to enter your bloodstream, either through injection or contact with an open area or mucous membrane.

How HIV is most commonly transmitted

Because only some fluids contain the virus, it can enter the body only under specific conditions. HIV is most often spread by:

sharing needles or injection drug equipment
sexual contact
from parent to baby during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding/chestfeeding

Rare ways HIV is transmitted

Activities that seldom, but can, lead to HIV transmission include:

oral sex
workplace exposure, such as a needle stick
unsterile medical equipment
pre-chewed food
deep, open-mouth kissing
biting that breaks the skin
tattoos or piercings performed with unsterile equipment

How HIV is not transmitted

There are many myths about HIV transmission, like you can get it from a toilet seat. HIV is not transmitted by:

insect bites
tears, saliva, or sweat
hugging
touching
shaking hands
sharing items like toilets or dishes
closed-mouth or social kissing
sexual contact without the exchange of bodily fluids

There are a number of methods that reduce the risk of contracting HIV:

use condoms or other forms of barrier protection during sexual contact
never sharing needles for injectable drugs or medications
get tested regularly for HIV and other STIs

If a person is living with HIV, consider the above precautions and take additional measures. Following an antiretroviral medication regimen can reduce viral load and reduce the likelihood of transmission to others.

Another way to reduce the spread of HIV is by taking pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP) medications. Also, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can be used to prevent HIV infection if someone is exposed to the virus.

Medical advances have helped to greatly improve the quality of life for people living with HIV. However, there is still a stigma about HIV and how it is transmitted.

There are some behaviors that can increase your chances of contracting HIV — like sex without a condom or sharing needles. However, it’s important to remember that you can’t get the virus by simply coming into contact with something that an HIV-positive individual has touched — or sat on — as in the case of a toilet seat.

Last medically reviewed on May 10, 2021

How we reviewed this article:

Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Current Version

May 10, 2021

Written By

Rachael Zimlich

Edited By

Allison Tsai

Medically Reviewed By

Jill Seladi-Schulman, PhD

Copy Edited By

Douglas Backstrom

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Medically reviewed by Jill Seladi-Schulman, Ph.D. — By Rachael Zimlich, RN, BSN on May 10, 2021

Clearing Up Common Misconceptions about HIV and AIDS | University of Utah Health

Interviewer: Misconceptions and misunderstandings about HIV AIDS up next on The Scope.

Announcer: Health tips, medical news, research and more for a happier healthier life, from University of Utah Health Sciences, this is The Scope.

Interviewer: So we’re here with Dr. Adam Spivak. He is an assistant professor in the School of Medicine and a specialist in HIV. What we’re talking about today is some of the misconceptions. Even in 2016 we’ve learned so much about the virus and what it means, but some of these misconceptions still are out there. So, let’s go ahead and cover some of these. What about transmission? Like, can you get HIV from kissing another person or touching them or sitting on a toilet seat or some of those old kind of . . .

Dr. Spivak: HIV is transmitted primarily sexually, and it can also be transmitted through blood. It cannot be transmitted through saliva, through casual contact, sharing a toilet seat in a public bathroom, sharing food with someone who is HIV infected. None of these are at all put anybody at risk.

Interviewer: But those stigmas did exist once, right? Because they must’ve come from somewhere.

Dr. Spivak: Oh absolutely, absolutely, and of course in the early days when AIDS was first described in the early 1980s we didn’t actually even know what caused it. It took two years. It was not until 1983 that a novel retrovirus, HIV, was discovered as the cause of AIDS. So you can imagine a disease that was causing such severe illness and deaths and you don’t know what causes it. We didn’t even know entirely that it was an infection for those first few years that a lot of stigma, a lot of stories circulate, and certainly those are powerful and have a way to persist.

Interviewer: One of the other misconceptions at least historically that might still kind of linger on today is you just see some of these old news clippings or these old photographs and things like that where people are referring to HIV and AIDS as a gay disease, as a gay cancer or something like that. We’re starting to find out that that’s not true.

Dr. Spivak: Yeah, no, no, no. Worldwide HIV is transmitted sexually actually through heterosexual sex as the predominant form of HIV transmission. In the early days again populations that seemed to be hardest hit were gay men, men who have sex with men, injection drug users, sex workers, and interestingly enough people of Haitian descent. But again, that has persisted along with the recognition of the early spread of AIDS among gay men as this population to be shunned. Of course when we’re talking about the 1980s we’re talking about a group that was very much discriminated against that felt very marginalized. Unfortunately a new disease, a lethal disease, a disease of unknown origin that seemed to be spreading like wildfire had the effect of amplifying a lot of those frankly prejudices that were already present in society.

Interviewer: What about HIV positive women who might be worried about whether or not they can ever have kids or be pregnant? What are some of the misconceptions about that?

Dr. Spivak: One of the real highlights, one of the bright spots with regard to prevention of HIV transmission is mother to child transmission. What we have learned through a number of really well done studies and now many years of clinical practice is that pregnant women with HIV who are started on anti-retroviral therapy on the treatment for HIV really do not pass on HIV to their infants. We know that even a single dose of the medicines given at the time of delivery can reduce transmission from mother to child. It appears as best we understand it that HIV transmits at the time of delivery. Even just a dose or two doses of the medicine at that time is a very powerful preventative. We go a few steps further than that and get mom fully treated, and in those circumstances transmission from mother to child is almost unheard of in the United States and Europe where we do this on a regular basis today, so a real bright spot in terms of HIV prevention.

Interviewer: What about some of the ideas and maybe stigmas that the disease is a death sentence, that if you catch it your life’s over?

Dr. Spivak: When AIDS was first described in the 1980s up until the mid-1990s, we did not have reliable treatment and this often was a cause of death in folks that were otherwise young and healthy and in the prime of their lives. The stigma, the stereotype, the concept that HIV AIDS is a death sentence certainly has its roots in truth. However, it’s 2016. Starting in the mid-1990s as we’ve discussed, 1995, ’96, the introduction of what we call combination anti-retroviral therapy, new drugs hit the market. It’s still what we use today. These are fabulous treatments for HIV. Our patients are living long healthy lives. They have to take the medicines every day.

Untreated absolutely it is devastating to the immune system. It leads to what we call opportunistic infections and ultimately to death. We saw that very graphically in the first decade and a half of this illness. However, what we see today with patients that are able to come in to our clinic, get access to care, take their medicines on a regular basis is that they are leading long, healthy, productive lives and are doing fabulously well.

Interviewer: What’s one of the top things that you would suggest for people to have done on this World AIDS Day?

Dr. Spivak: Oh absolutely I think the most important thing that people can do is get tested. I say that because the vast majority of the United States population has never had an HIV test. Now most people may not be actively at risk for HIV which is to say they’re not practicing unsafe sex, they may not be injecting drugs, but we do know and there’ve been a number of studies that have shown that there are quite a number of people living today who have HIV who are not diagnosed. That’s a tragedy on a number of fronts. We’ve talked about the ability to get these folks treated. It ultimately will affect their health. They’re also at great risk of spreading the disease.

So, I think the test we have for HIV is one of the best diagnostic tests in modern medicine. It’s incredibly accurate. A negative test in the setting of someone who’s not at risk for HIV is very reassuring. It sits on their medical chart and they never need to get tested again. We’re trying to get most people from zero to one to get tested. Of course the few folks who may have been at risk in the past or still practicing high risk behaviors with regard to HIV, and we’re able to identify them and diagnose them with HIV, we’re really going to be able to not only help them but help potentially partners help them from spreading the disease.

Announcer: Thescoperadio.com is University of Utah Health Sciences Radio. If you like what you heard, be sure to get our latest content by following us on Facebook. Just click on the Facebook icon at Thescoperadio.com.

Is it possible to get HIV through the toilet seat? – Drink-Drink

07.07.2022 DrinkDrinkAdmin

Content

Science
How HIV is transmitted
- How HIV is most commonly transmitted
- Red Ways of HIV transmission
- How HIV is not transmitted
How to protect yourself and others
Bottom line

HIV is a virus that can weaken the immune system. Over the past few decades since the virus emerged, the medical community has learned a lot about how it can and cannot be transmitted.

One myth that has been busted is that HIV can be transmitted through blood or urine on the toilet seat. This is not true and this article explains why.

Science

HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is spread primarily through certain bodily fluids. The virus must enter the bloodstream directly for infection to occur. Although transmission can occur in several ways, the toilet seat is not one of them.

Although HIV can live in the body, it does not live long in the air or on hard surfaces. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HIV becomes nearly 100 percent inactive within hours of leaving the body.

To get HIV from a toilet seat, you must have an open sore or exposed mucous membrane through which bodily fluid from the seat can enter your body. Mucous membranes can be found in the genitals, rectum, and mouth.

To remove the virus from hard surfaces, standard cleaning methods are recommended, which are used even in medical facilities, rather than special sterilization methods.

How HIV is transmitted

HIV can be transmitted through a range of body fluids, including:

blood
semen
pre-ejaculate (or pre-ejaculate)
rectal fluids
vaginal secretions

9000 9 breast milk

However, even if the virus is present in these fluids, this does not mean that transmission is guaranteed. Fluids must enter your bloodstream, either through injection or through contact with an exposed area or mucous membrane.

How HIV is most commonly transmitted

Because only certain fluids contain the virus, it can only enter the body under certain conditions. HIV is most commonly transmitted by:

sharing needles or injection equipment
parent-to-child sexual contact
during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding/breastfeeding

Rare ways of HIV transmission

Activities that may rarely lead to HIV transmission include:

oral sex
exposure in the workplace, e. g. from a needle
non-sterile medical equipment
pre-chewed food
open-mouthed deep kiss
bite that breaks the skin 900 10
non-sterile tattoos or piercings

How HIV is not transmitted

There are many myths about HIV transmission, for example, you can get it from the toilet seat. HIV is not transmitted by:

insect bites
tears, saliva or sweat
hugging
touching
shaking hands
sharing objects such as toilets or dishes

9000 9 closed mouth or social kissing

sexual intercourse without exchanging bodily fluids

How to protect yourself and others

There are a number of ways to reduce the risk of contracting HIV:

use condoms or other forms of barrier protection during sexual intercourse
never share injection drug or medication needles
get tested regularly for HIV and other STIs

If the person is living with HIV, consider the above precautions and take additional measures. Adhering to your antiretroviral drug regimen can lower your viral load and reduce your chance of passing the virus on to others.

Another way to reduce the spread of HIV is to take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). In addition, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can be used to prevent HIV infection if someone has been exposed to the virus.

Bottom line

Medical advances have greatly improved the quality of life of people living with HIV. However, there is still stigma surrounding HIV and how it is transmitted.

There are some behaviors that can increase your chances of getting HIV, such as having sex without a condom or sharing needles. However, it’s important to remember that you can’t get the virus just by coming into contact with something that an HIV-positive person has touched or sat on, as is the case with a toilet seat.

Health

Is it possible to get an infection there

The public toilet is not always sparkling clean, some establishments look especially unattractive, and you don’t really want to go there. It seems that going there without a sterile suit is dangerous for health. But is it really worth avoiding visiting public toilets, or can you go there without risk to your life?

Tags:

infections

HIV

hygiene

Let’s see what you can expect from public toilets. The bad news: yes, this place is literally teeming with different germs. Good – about the same thing happens in the toilet at your place, and therefore the toilet itself does not pose any particular danger.

Is it possible to catch something while going to the toilet?

Most microorganisms are faecal bacteria. This is quite logical, considering why people go to the toilet. Most of them are Escherichia coli. Recall that this bacterium feels great in our intestines and belongs to the conditionally pathogenic flora. This means that it poses a health hazard only if, for some reason, it multiplies excessively. Yes, then you can expect a real intestinal infection with all its manifestations – diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and many others. In addition, in a public (and home) toilet, there are high chances of encountering salmonella and staphylococcus aureus, which also cause diseases with unpleasant symptoms.

ADVERTISING – CONTINUED BELOW

But don’t panic: contact with certain bacteria, even such formidable ones as staphylococcus, does not mean at all that you will definitely become infected with something unpleasant. The fact is that we are constantly in contact with such microbes: they are not only in the toilet, but also in places far removed from it. For example, on the phone with which you go to the toilet at home, on the laptop keyboard, handrails in public transport and cart handles in supermarkets. Despite the fact that we are in constant contact with different microbes, most of us have a fairly strong immune system and do not get an intestinal infection every 2-3 days.

In general, if you wash your hands after using the toilet, do not rub your eyes with dirty hands, do not pick your nose, and do not grab food with dirty hands, then the chances of getting infected are quite small.

Find out what is dirtier in your house than the toilet bowl

Can STDs be transmitted through sitting?

Common myth: Going to a public toilet can catch a sexually transmitted infection. The chances that the situation will develop according to such a scenario are negligible.

Sexually transmitted diseases are transmitted directly through contact between a sick person and a healthy person. The causative agents of these infections die very quickly outside the human body: the causative agents of gonorrhea and chlamydia lose their ability to infect after 10 seconds. So catching HIV, herpes, gonorrhea or something else unpleasant from a public toilet is unrealistic.

Should I use disposable seats?

Good news again: the public toilet is considered the cleanest place in the entire toilet. It is constantly washed, the seat is disinfected several times a day, and most visitors also wipe the seat with toilet paper.

Despite this, not everyone dares to sit on the toilet in a shopping mall, airport or office. Many prefer to “hang” over the toilet, but do not risk sitting down. And very in vain. Such a posture contradicts our physiology: the bladder is not completely emptied like this, it is also difficult to count on a complete defecation in such a situation. Bottom line: frequent “freezes” can provoke cystitis, and are also a risk factor for the development of hemorrhoids. Nothing good, just problems.

Many people sit on a public toilet only after covering the seat with toilet paper or using a disposable seat. Does it help against germs? No, all dangerous bacteria can perfectly seep through a disposable seat. The benefits of paper seats are purely psychological: it seems to many that in this case the seat becomes cleaner.

Which places in the toilet are really dangerous?

It is safe to sit on the toilet, but are there places in the toilet that are better not to touch? Yes, I have. These are, for example, door handles, a flush button, as well as the dirtiest place in a public toilet – its floor. It is washed and wiped much less frequently and more thoroughly than the toilet bowl and its seat, but at the same time, the maximum of all fecal bacteria and microorganisms gets on the floor. If you decide to put a bag or package on the floor in the toilet, it’s better not to do this, because you are not going to wash the bag, but you will hold it in your hands, and all this splendor will spread over you, your things and so on.

Flushing contributes to the spread of infection in the toilet: after pressing the button, the smallest droplets of water rise into the air, carrying a huge amount of useful and not very microbes. Gradually, droplets settle on all surfaces. If the toilet cubicle does not have a ceiling, then droplets can fly out of it. In general, it is best to flush with the toilet lid closed – this rule works not only for public, but also for home toilets.

5 rules for survival in a public toilet

To summarize. We will not argue, there are quite a lot of bacteria in public toilets. And here’s how to protect yourself and minimize the risk of getting infected with something inappropriate.

Use toilet paper

It’s not only about its intended use, everything is clear with that, but also about using it to touch door handles with a couple of pieces of paper, especially after you’ve washed your hands and are about to leave the toilet.

Close the toilet lid

If you flush with the toilet lid closed, then the chances of a whole regiment of bacteria rising into the air will be seriously reduced.

Sit, don’t sit down

The toilet seat is cleaner than you think, so sit on it boldly. If a paper seat helps you feel calmer, then use it, but remember that this is nothing more than psychological protection.

No phones

We are all addicted to phones and even in a public toilet we continue to write on social networks or instant messengers. This should not be done either in a public or in a home toilet.

Can you get hiv from toilet seat: Can You Get HIV from a Toilet Seat? What the Science Says

Can You Get HIV from a Toilet Seat? What the Science Says

How HIV is most commonly transmitted

Rare ways HIV is transmitted

How HIV is not transmitted

How we reviewed this article:

related stories

Read this next

Clearing Up Common Misconceptions about HIV and AIDS | University of Utah Health

Is it possible to get HIV through the toilet seat? – Drink-Drink

Science

How HIV is transmitted

How HIV is most commonly transmitted

Rare ways of HIV transmission

How HIV is not transmitted

How to protect yourself and others

Bottom line

Is it possible to get an infection there

Is it possible to catch something while going to the toilet?

Can STDs be transmitted through sitting?

Should I use disposable seats?

Which places in the toilet are really dangerous?

5 rules for survival in a public toilet

Use toilet paper

Close the toilet lid

Sit, don’t sit down

No phones

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