posted
Comment: I have heard about a rumor which suggests that drug addicts go to the grocery stores and clean their needles by sticking them into the oranges etc. Then the people who eat those oranges will supposedly be infected with HIV. The rumor also says that you can tell if someone has sticked a neelde to orange by the fact that the orange will have black spots in it. Could this be true?
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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First off, the next person to use that needle would be shooting acid. OW!!! Second, the infective capability...
According to the CDC, the odds of contracting HIV from a needle-stick (in a hospital situation, basically vein-to-skin), is 400:1. HIV is a wuss as far as viruses go- dies as the blood clots out- 15 minutes max. Even if there were people doing this, the blood would be rendered noninfective by the time the buyer grabbed it.
-------------------- "To be or not to be! That is the question! Now, will you answer, dare, double dare, or take the Physical Challenge?" --Mark Summers as Hamlet Countdown: 177 days and counting... or less. My blog. 14 keyboards owed. Posts: 5584 | From: Ohio | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:According to the CDC, the odds of contracting HIV from a needle-stick
And this isn't even the equivalent of a needle stick. I'm not sure what the numbers are, but I suspect the infection rate from ingesting HIV is quite small indeed.
HIV is, of course, carried by blood (and other fluids, though in lower amounts). Now, humanity has been dealt a major bonus in that HIV is an enveloped virus- has a fatty layer around it. When that dries out, the virus is rendered harmless.
Now, oxygen will, of course, dry it out. Problem is, it only can get to it when the carrying fluid dries. So, the blood must dry first. The tiny amount of blood in a needle will dry in seconds, and is sped up by the acids in the produce.
-------------------- "To be or not to be! That is the question! Now, will you answer, dare, double dare, or take the Physical Challenge?" --Mark Summers as Hamlet Countdown: 177 days and counting... or less. My blog. 14 keyboards owed. Posts: 5584 | From: Ohio | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Not to mention the looks one might get while attempting to stick needles into produce at the supermarket. I know I can't even look for a decent piece of fruit without several people staring at me like im molesting it.
-------------------- "Silly customer, you cannot hurt a Twinkie." -Apu (The Simpsons) Posts: 2026 | From: 10 miles South of Boston | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
If there are any addicts out there that are that worried about sterilizing their equipment, why don't they just boost a bottle of rubbing alcohol while they are in the store? Seems like it would be easier to do than than whipping out a syringe and stabbing it into the valencias.
I wonder if this rumor got started because nursing students are said to practice their shot-giving techinques on oranges?
Posts: 1651 | From: Columbus, Ohio | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
As long as the addict is in the store, why not just steal a bottle of bleach or alcohol or a box of alcohol wipes. Or, just steal the orange ( a lot easier to conceal) and clean your needles in the privacy of some abandoned building?
As for the lemon juice thing--the researchers found that it reduced virus replication--not "killed HIV" --and that they had ot leave it on for an hour. .
quote:Lemon and Lime juice as potent natural microbicides
R V Short (1), S G McCoombe (1), C L V Maslin (2), S M Crowe(2)
1 - The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; 2 - Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, Melbourne, Australia Contact e-mail: s.mccoombe@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Background There is no doubt that an acceptable, affordable, safe and effective vaginal microbicide is urgently needed to protect women from HIV transmission. Lemons and limes are indigenous to South East Asia, and have been used intravaginally as an effective contraceptive for several centuries. The contraceptive effect is due to the low pH immobilising sperm. It is widely known that HIV is susceptible to acidity, so we have studied the antiviral properties of lime and lemon juice on cultures of live HIV.
Methods: We developed a cell culture system to measure toxicity of lemon or lime juice on human peripheral blood monoclear cells (PBMC), as well as inhibition of infectivity of HIV after exposure to different dilutions of lemon or lime juice for variable periods of time. Following exposure to lemon juice, the virus is cultured with PBMC for 2 weeks. HIV replication in PBMC is monitored by reverse transcriptase activity. We are currently measuring the ability of lemon juice to inactivate HIV in the ejaculates of HIV-positive men.
Prof. Roger Short (AM) Reproductive biologist Photo: Lucy Di Paolo Courtesy: Monash Journal
Results: The pH of lemon juice ranged from 2.3-2.5. A 2% lemon juice solution in culture (pH 5.7) exposed to the virus for 1 hour had no inhibitory effect on HIV replication and was non-toxic to the PBMCs.
A 5% solution (pH 4.0) for 1 hour halved HIV replication and was also non-toxic. A 10% solution for one hour (pH 3.4) reduced HIV replication by two-thirds and was also non-toxic. A 20% solution (pH 2.9) after only 2 minutes exposure also reduced viral load by 90% but 25% of cells showed toxicity.
The senior researcher is hpoing to get funding to test whether douching with citrus juice would be an effective, low cost AIDS preveniton in developing countries.
-------------------- The plural of "anecdote" is not "data." Posts: 4255 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Feb 2000
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Seriously, though, this is just ridiculous. why would they bother going all the way to the supermarket, running the risk of being found in posession of heroin needles, when they could just clean them back at home?
-------------------- I like to go down to the playground and watch the kids run and jump and scream, because they don't know I'm only using blanks. Posts: 942 | From: Illinois | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote: Not to mention the looks one might get while attempting to stick needles into produce at the supermarket. I know I can't even look for a decent piece of fruit without several people staring at me like im molesting it.
LittleDuck, you should try thumping a melon. I'm still not allowed into the produce section without an escort.
I think I'll send that rumor on to my mother. She's convinced you can get HIV through sweat.
-------------------- "Is it ME? Am I a MAGNET for these idiots?"~Pearl Forrester MST3K Die-Hard Engineers, Big Red One my Dad's website "Must be a 'snopes' thing..." ~my entire family when I try to explain something. Posts: 4524 | From: South of Madison, Wisconsin | Registered: May 2005
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