—The butcher

Dear The butcher,

Don't worry, you can handle as much raw meat as your job demands and you will never be at risk of getting HIV from the meat.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is unique to humans and it can only be passed among people. Animals or animal products (dead or alive) cannot transmit HIV to humans or vise versa. Since raw bloody animal meat does not carry the virus, handling this meat will not be a risk. There also have been no documented cases of HIV being transmitted through food preparation or food serving.

HIV makes its way out of the body of an infected person through four fluids: blood, breast milk, vaginal fluids, and semen or male ejaculate. (These last two are sometimes lumped together just as "sexual fluids.") In order for someone to become infected with the virus, one of these infected fluids has to come in contact with an open pathway into the body. Thus, transmission of HIV happens in one of four ways:

• Unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with an HIV-positive person
• Mother-to-child HIV transmission during pregnancy, delivery, or through breast feeding
• By sharing unclean (infected) needles, or
• During blood transfusions or unsanitary blood exchange (HIV-infected blood coming into contact with an open sore, etc). This is the rarest form of transmission, as all blood donated in the US is screened for HIV before being considered for transfusions.

Knowing all the ins and outs of HIV transmission, including levels of risk, can be tricky. Check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV/AIDS Factsheet for a thorough discussion of all possible modes of transmission of the virus. Also see Confused about HIV transmission statistics in the Go Ask Alice! archives for more detailed information on the unique characteristics of HIV and modes of transmission.

Remember that the 'H' in 'HIV' stands for human — only people can pass HIV on to other people, no matter how much animal blood is on your butcher's smock!

Alice

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