Drug Use and AIDS/HIV

The other day in my office, I over heard a few co-workers talking about their friend who claimed to have gotten aids by smoking another person’s scabs(He was a heroin addict). So curious I did some research and found nothing on this subject, the most I got was that AIDS/HIV is only transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids not including Saliva. This subject has been bothering me for about a week now and I’m the type of person that if I’m intrigued about something, I will find out if its true or not. So If anyone has any information on this subject please post.

Thanks.

I think the more intriguing thing is why anyone would smoke a scab. How did the conversation go?

“This guy I know was smoking scabs.”
“Smoking scabs?”
“Yeah, well, he’s a heroin addict.”
“Oh, that explains it.”

Anyway, I’m not seeing anything about scab smoking and AIDS either. This might be something the medical community isn’t worried about because anyone who smokes scabs should probably be removed from gene pool anyway. Regardless, I doubt the friend got AIDS through smoking scabs. He’s more likely to have gotten AIDS while harvesting the scabs off another person. (That image is another candidate for this thread.)

Okay, it might be possible to get AIDS through scab smoking. Here’s two articles from back in 1988 that talk about how some viruses could be spread through the smoke emitted by laser treatments:

http://query.ny times.com/gst/f … 750C0A96E948260

I’m not finding anything newer so far.

Excerpt from that NYT article:

No one knows whether hepatitis or AIDS infections could be spread this way. The hepatitis and AIDS viruses are considered far less likely than papilloma viruses to invade through the skin. But the researchers at Northwestern said, ”It would be prudent to assume that the plume of smoke may be infectious.”

Yes I see where your coming from, but blood is not flammable. So the only part that would actually burn would be the other chemicals in the blood. (ie: The heroin)