Can HIV Be Transmitted When Cocaine Is Smoked In A Rest Room?

Posted on Thu, 13 Aug 2015

Question: Hi there stupidly did cocaine off the top part of a toliet in a nightclub. For the last week I have been rediculusly anxious and have been wondering if you can catch anything for it such as hiv/aids. I no this seams rediculus but could really do with some piece of mind. I suffer quite badly with anxiety

Thanks

Answered by Dr. Dr. Matt Wachsman (12 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
No on HIV/AIDS

Detailed Answer:
The virus requires living blood in noticeable quantities for transmission, so. no.

On the other hand, staph (which most likely would be obvious as a skin infection) is easily transmitted and is able to live on surfaces a long time. Hepatitis is a bit of a stretch... although it is about 100x more transmissible than HIV and even very small amounts of blood that is not totally fresh can be infectious....it WOULD require getting into your blood stream. So, you'd need to be preparing cocaine for injection off of the toilet seat and very very unlucky.

These are all testable by 2 weeks after exposure.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Matt Wachsman (8 minutes later)

Thanks for easing my nerves is this the same for other fluids in terms of hiv related

Answered by Dr. Dr. Matt Wachsman (7 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Yes they have to have living cells

Detailed Answer:
urine is just no for HIV.....
transmission from female to male without std's breaking skin is similarly low risk so vaginal secretions is no. poop is not much risk except really high for poop bacterial diseases causing gastrointestinal illness....but not HIV. it is receptive (bottom) that has the HIV risk in male male sex. this exposure is so very very much smaller than intercourse that there is no way to calculate it except to just say not a risk.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar