Can I get HIV from casual contact?
- HIV is not transmitted through casual, everyday, household contact.
- HIV is not transmitted by saliva, so it is impossible to get it through sharing a glass, a fork, a sandwich, etc.
- HIV is not transmitted by day-to-day contact in the workplace, schools, or social settings.
- HIV is not transmitted through shaking hands, hugging, or a casual kiss. You cannot become infected from a toilet seat, a drinking fountain, a door knob, dishes, drinking glasses, food, or pets.
"Don't spend time worrying about weird and obscure ways of transmitting the virus. The simple fact is that if no one shared needles and everyone wore condoms, the HIV epidemic would disappear."
- Joel Gallant, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins AIDS Service at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Do you worry about your family contracting HIV?
"I have no fears that HIV will be transmitted to anyone else in the family because it can only be transmitted in 3 ways: #1. mother to child transmission through birth or breast feeding. She is neither giving birth nor breast feeding anyone else in our home so no worries there. #2. sharing contaminated needles. I am very certain there are currently no intravenous drug users in the house, so strike 2. #3. Sexual contact. If the children in my home are having sex with each other then I have even bigger problems, don't I?" -Traci