… research by Thames Water has shown that HIV can survive for several days in sewage in the laboratory.
Fresh Water
HIV does not survive as long as other viruses in ocean/sea water.
Infectious HIV has been recovered from human corpses between eleven and 16 days after death in bodies stored at the usual mortuary temperature of 2°C. It is unclear how long infectious HIV may persist in corpses left to decay at normal room temperature, but HIV has been cultured from organs stored at 20°C up to 14 days after death. HIV was not detected in significant quantities later than 16 days, implying that buried corpses or those preserved for long periods pose less of a risk to undertakers and pathologists.
So in practical terms, there isn’t a simple, straightforward answer to the question of how long HIV survives outside the body. But there’s little reason to worry about contact with body fluids that have already been outside a person’s body for some minutes.
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In certain, specific circumstances it may survive more than a few minutes. But it generally does not remain infectious and certainly does not pose a threat to people’s health.
