Can HIV spread by contamination of antiseptic liquids like Savlon?

Answer 1

I'm not a scientist or medical expert, so I cannot say without any degree of certainty that HIV (or indeed other viruses) couldn't survive in antispetic liquids like Savlon. Viruses are not living organisms, they're just raw genetic material that requires a host cell. So in theory, it's possible with some viruses, but it depends on how effective the product is at destroying genetic material. Bleach for example, will totally destroy viruses. Whether HIV can survive AND be transmitted into someone else's blood from these products though, seems to me very unlikely.

What I can say with certainty is that HIV can only be spread by direct transmission through the blood or bodily fluids containing the virus of an infected person, i.e. by sexual contact, sharing needles, blood transfusion, mother-to-baby.

So logically speaking, for the virus to contaminate antispetic products (assuming it can even survive contact), it would have to come from blood or bodily fluids described above, which seems unlikely in the first instance. And even if that did happen, infection would be unlikely to occur just by using the antisceptic liquid on hands or minor wounds.

Despite public stigma and fears associated with HIV and AIDs, it's actually very difficult to contract and rare for most ordinary folks (who practice safe sex) to contract HIV.