Filipino Programmer | Philippines

My previous college professor sent me an email claiming HIV is scattered by leaving pin with HIV contaminated blood on theater seats. The email contains the following:

Be Careful
(Don’t avoid. Please read this mail)

Dear All,
Kindly take a couple of minutes to go thru this mail. If useful may advise
others also . Please pass this on to others this happened in Paris
recently and may happen elsewhere also.
A few weeks ago, in a cinema , a person felt something poking from her seat. When she got up to see what it was, she found a needle sticking out of the seat with a
note attached saying “You have just been infected by HIV (AIDS)”.
The DiseaseControlCenter(in Paris) reports many similar events
in many other cities recently. All tested needles were HIV Positive.

PS: It also happened in a Monot pub in Lebanon so be careful!
The Center also reports that needles have been found in cash dispensers
(ATM) at public banking machines. We ask everyone to use extreme caution
when faced with this kind of situation. All public chairs/seats should
be inspected with vigilance and caution before use. A careful visual inspection
should be enough. In addition, they ask that each of you pass this message
along to all members of your family and your friends of the potential danger.

Recently, one doctor has narrated a somewhat similar instance that happened
to one of his patients at the Priya Cinema in Delhi. A young girl, engaged
and about to be married in a couple of months, was pricked while the movie
was going on. The tag with the needle had the message “Welcome
to the World of HIV family”.
Though the doctors told her family that it takes about 6 months before
the virus grows strong enough to start damaging the system
and a healthy victim could survive about 5-6 years, the girl died in 4
months, perhaps more because of the “Shock thought”. We all have
to be careful at public places, rest God help! Just think about saving
a life by forwarding this message. Please, take a few seconds of your time
to pass along.

Kindly
pass this to every one. Probably your mail can help some save his/her life.

When I first read the story, i thought that the story might be in some way valid. What shocked me is the fact that it is true that one fact on acquiring HIV is by using contaminated needles. So what I did is to look for facts on HIV and here are the information so far I have found.

How you CAN get HIV infection/AIDS
Blood, semen, vaginal secretions, breast feeding

• Unprotected sexual contact (anal, vaginal, or oral) with an HIV infected person
• Sharing needles and syringes - injectable drug use
• Receiving blood transfusions or organs between January 1977 and June 1985 (blood and organs received after June 1985 are considered safe from HIV)
• Mother to baby before, during, or after birth (HIV may be transmitted through breast milk if infant is nursed by an HIV infected mother)
  bullet Occupation in healthcare or lab

How you WON’T get HIV infection/AIDS
Not through saliva, tears, urine, stool

• Not by being bitten by mosquitoes or other bugs
• Not by being bitten by an animal
• Not by eating food handled, prepared, or served by someone with HIV infection
• Not by sharing toilets, telephones, or clothes
• Not by sharing forks, spoons, knives, or drinking glasses
• Not by touching, hugging, or kissing a person with HIV infection
• Not by attending school, participating in sports, church, shopping malls, or other public places with HIV infected people

Reference

With this information in hand, I proved that indeed sharing contaminated needles are in fact true, so how can I prove that this email is a hoax? But isn’t the word used is sharing? So i tried looking for facts on percentages of acquiring HIV thru needle pricks and here are what I found:

And there have also been rumours where people are affected by the HIV virus when they got pricked by an HIV infected needle in theaters…”
Dr. Ismail says: Maybe, if it is a fresh prick and the chance is 0.3% only even then.

HIV (virus) requires *ONLY* *Blood or Semen* as medium to transmit from one body to another.
Dr. Ismail says: Even contact of mucous membranes is enough for transmission , saliva does contain virus but transmission is negligible….

HIV *can not* transmit even through *Saliva* (mucous) i.e. even if HIV-infected patient coughs and another person is exposed to his sputum (cough), the virus still can not transmit because concentration of virus particles in sputum is almost NIL & exposure to air anyway kills virus in fraction of seconds.
Dr. Ismail says: last sentence is true but not in seconds though!

In case HIV-infected person got an injury (like the cut in below mentioned story) and he is bleeding, the virus can transmit to another person only if another person has a cut/wound in his body & that too when *blood from both person comes in contact with each other* (this is also very very rare unless bleeding is very high) and not otherwise.
Dr. Ismail says: True but when blood contacts a breach in mucous membrane infection is possible theoritically!

Excerpts from Chirucola

This sure tells us that HIV/AIDS are not acquirable by needle pricks, I may be possible but chances are very very very small and provided with a special situation like the above mentioned. Next I tried looking for urban legends similar to the story above, here are a few sites I have found:
www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/pinprick.asp
www.hoax-slayer.com/hiv-needle-hoax.html
www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/hivneedles.html

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