- http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/insite?page=ask-05-11-09 Can HIV Survive Outside the Body: Is This a Hoax? gray line November 9, 2005 Answered by Mark Vogel, MA, HIV InSite Associate Editor for Prevention and Policy transparent gif transparent gif Question Can HIV survive outside human body? I've been reading e-mails about people that are infected by HIV just because the sat on a sofa that has a needle with HIV-infected blood pumping through it. Does it really happen? Answer Great question. A lot of people wonder how long HIV can survive outside of the body. The simple answer is that HIV does not survive very well outside of the body. In CDC studies with super high concentrations (more than you would likely come across in any natural encounter), HIV cannot survive for more than a couple of hours because drying of even these high concentrations of HIV reduces the amount of infectious virus by 90% to 99% within several hours. Basically, once the infected bodily fluid is dry, the risk is essentially zero. The question of a needle-stick exposure is a little more complicated because a needle can contain HIV-infected blood that has not dried. However, the widely circulating e-mails about HIV-infected needles stuck in sofas, movie theater seats, pay phone coin returns (Does anyone use pay phones anymore?!), etc. are hoaxes.