Taliban using HIV bombs

This source is obviously unreliable. However, if it were true, then would the heat from the blast not sterilize the needles?

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Just how long do you think an AIDS virus would last on a needle stuck on a bomb? A few hours at best. Also where are they going to find all these needles and it would be very risky just to handle them (if freshly used).

Sounds like propaganda to me.

Actually only a few seconds. HIV dies almost immediately outside of the human body, as do most blood-borne illnesses. That is why they require "intimate" contact to be spread.

Plus, in an exposion, the needle would probably be sterilized by the explosion, and the chances of it hitting point first are very low.

Plus, bomb techs were bomb gloves. So if it didn't go off, the needles would not penetrate the gloves of the emergency workers.

Plus, in most cases of IED and Roadside bombs or suspicious packages, they send a robot, and if it is still suspicious, they detonate the whole thing from afar, they don't go and "disarm" it like the movies.

(Remember the story of the cash donation blown up at a church? Suspicious box on church doorstep, bomb squad blew it up and found it filled with a cash donation?)

Originally posted by getreadyalready

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Just how long do you think an AIDS virus would last on a needle stuck on a bomb? A few hours at best. Also where are they going to find all these needles and it would be very risky just to handle them (if freshly used).

Sounds like propaganda to me.

Actually only a few seconds. HIV dies almost immediately outside of the human body, as do most blood-borne illnesses. That is why they require "intimate" contact to be spread.

Plus, in an exposion, the needle would probably be sterilized by the explosion, and the chances of it hitting point first are very low.

Lots of misunderstanding in this thread. Asktheanimals is closer to the truth with a few hours, when it's inside a syringe. But I agree with getreadyalready that getting hit with the needle point is unlikely for a number of reasons and even if you do the chances of infection would be low.

Sharing needles DOES qualify as the type of contact that can spread the AIDs virus if you've done any research at all about ways AIDs can be spread.

And while what's inside the needle is outside the body, it's not exposed to the air in the same way HIV would be on say, a toilet seat where it would die quickly. So if AIDs can last 36 days in hermetically sealed syringe, it could last a while in an ordinary syringe. How long would depend on a number of factors, but it doesn't die instantly or in a few seconds in a syringe as people keep incorrectly saying.

And no, the heat from the explosion wouldn't sterilize it. The shock wave might blast crack the syringe, or it may not.

And regarding the temperature, these IEDs are buried right? So they aren't cooking in direct sunlight. And if they are not at body temperature, what are you saying, that they are too hot or too cold? How far away from body temperature does it have to get to kill it? I think it's close enough to human body temperature buried in the middle east to last a while.

My guess is, if the needles were planted in the morning, the threat could be viable for most of the day.

The next day I'm not so sure if there would still be a threat or not, but I think when these are planted there's an expectation for them to go off within a few hours which is certainly a short enough time for AIDS to survive inside a syringe at close to body temperature which it would be buried in the ground in the middle east.

Now having corrected some of those misconceptions about the virus dying instantly in a syringe, I do think the story is propaganda more than anything else. And the threat of getting infected from the needles is low for other reasons, just not the reasons mentioned. For example many times people are in vehicles when IEDs go off, I think the needle would get bent on impact with the vehicle and if it did enter the vehicle, it would no longer be the straight projectile it started out as.

And even if you do get a needle stick your chances of infection aren't that high:

www.health24.com...

The HI virus can be transmitted from one person to another when

1. A person receives HIV-contaminated blood in a blood transfusion,
2. When a person is exposed to needles that are contaminated with HIV-infected blood in the process of injecting drugs,
3. When a person (eg a health care worker) is injured with blood-contaminated needles, syringes, razor blades or other sharp instruments.
4. Unsterile or dirty razors, knives, needles or other instruments are used during cultural practices such as circumcision, scarrification, or blood letting.

The risk of HIV infection after a needlestick injury with an HIV-contaminated hollow-bore needle, is approximately 0,37% (or one chance out of 370).

If HIV can survive in razors and knives, then certainly it can survive much longer in needles. But the risk of infection is relatively low. But a one and 370 chance of infection is pretty small if you do get stuck, and probably a less than 1 in 3 chance of getting stuck, so that puts the risk at less than 1 in thousand right there, if the virus DOES survive.

I think if you stood on an IED the last thing you would be worried about i the pin prick

This is not a hoax, this is straight up DISINFORMATION.
The Hiv only survives for 20 minutes outside of the body environment.
Just who is the “Taliban” buying said heroine needles from, and what if they weren’t infected? It seems a bad investment for the Taliban.
This is straight up aimed at the Church educated right wing idiots, of which the US has a lot of. “YOU SEE WHAT THEM TALIBAN IS DOIN TO US?”
Thankfully due to the internet some are waking up and becoming educated.
I know because I am a reformed idiot myself, but just like all addictions I still relapse from time to time so please understand if I do and be gentle with me please.

(Edit)
This is obviously a response to our bacon laden hollowpoint bullets from the first gulf war.


[edit on 24-6-2010 by g146541]

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Good info!

I didn't bother going to look up the real data, I just wrote from memory, so my memory probably came from some of those "toilet seat" scenarios.

Anyway, I agree that this would be a terrible waste of resources for the Taliban. However it is well documented that troops throughout history have rubbed feces on their knives and swords and booby traps to be sure that any wound that wasn't fatal would get a nasty infection! Now there is plenty of feces to go around, so this was a terrific use of resources!

Didn't the USA used fleas with the black death and put them inside a blanket they presented to a leading indian war cheif as a gift or was it john wayne that shot em all.

if it is true they are using HIV and thats a big if then have they not been taught by the best in the world who all but commited genicide against the native americans.

Iserail is useing phosphous bombs and no one does a thing at the UN.

Have we not got double standards here or what.

Whether or not the needles would be effective does not automatically make the story a hoax or "disinformation".

In Vietnam, the Viet-Cong would use Punji stakes as a low-tech booby trap.

In the preparation of these stakes, the stake itself would be sharpened, and, in some cases, rubbed with toxic plants, frogs or even feces.

Obviously the thought being the feces would infect the wound. While some soldiers were wounded by these, it became much more of a psychological weapon than anything. This could be the same case with the needles.

reply to post by Aggie Man


The source goes on to say...

"HIV is a very fragile virus and cannot survive outside the body when exposed the environment. There has never been a case of a person being infected by HIV from a discarded needle.'