Dear Alice, I have been asked by my hairdresser about the risks of contracting HIV when using the facilities. Bodily fluid exchange with an infected person. Infected blood, semen, vaginal, or cervical fluids must enter an uninfected person's body through their mucous membranes.
Mucous membranes line the vagina, rectum, urethra, and the mouth.
From an infected mother to her fetus during pregnancy or possibly during delivery. The virus is very weak, and does not exist for very long outside the mucous membranes of an uninfected person. It also does not live on inanimate objects, such as toilet seats. No case of AIDS has been found to be caused through saliva, cough spray, sneeze spray, tears, urine, or insect bites. There is no known risk of HIV contraction from an HIV infected person to family members, co-workers, and schoolmates, other than sexual partners and children born of infected mothers.