A 22-year-old Brazilian woman was diagnosed with HIV after sharing manicure equipment with her cousin in a rare case of disease transmission, UK MailOnline reported.
The woman discovered that she had a long-standing infection when she went to volunteer for blood donation, according to a detailed report in a medical journal. Although her blood work condition was normal, she tested HIV positive after a high viral load was detected.
Initially, doctors were left puzzled when the woman denied all of the transmission routes for acquiring the virus, which include sharing infected needles, intercourse without a condom, and an HIV-positive mother passing it to her child during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, Counsel & Heal reported.
However, the woman did report having shared manicure instruments 10 years ago with a cousin who was later found to be HIV-positive.
After conducting further tests on the patient and her cousin, researchers discovered a highly related viral genetic material in both of them, indicating the possibility that HIV was transmitted by the manicure instruments.
The case, which has been revealed as a new form of transmission for the virus, is "very rare event" and the risks of infection from new sources remain to be very low, according to the report in the online journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.
Currently, manicure utensils are not part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of mechanisms by which HIV spreads.
Dr. Brian Foley, of the HIV Sequence Database at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said the case should not make people scared of contact with people with the virus, as the risk of infection is very low.
"HIV is not transmitted by casual contact, such as sharing eating utensils, or drinking from the same water glass," he said. "This transmission of HIV by shared manicure equipment is a very rare event that should serve not to make people fear HIV or contact with HIV-infected people."
However, the study's authors warned that the case should create awareness about sharing items which may contain blood.
"It should make people aware that sharing any utensils with possible blood-blood contact, such as needles used for drugs, tattoos, or acupuncture can result in transmission of viruses such as hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV," he said.
"In addition, there are other common viruses and bacteria that can also be spread by sharing equipment without proper disinfection between users."
Similar remarks were echoed by Dr. Michael Brady, Medical Director at Terrence Higgins Trust.
"This is a highly unusual case. It is often very difficult to be certain as to the source of an HIV infection - especially one that happened over a decade ago - and it is hard to imagine how HIV could be caught from manicure equipment."
"In the UK the vast majority of HIV infections are passed on through unprotected sex. I don't think this single case need change our simple message that the best ways to prevent HIV infection are to use condoms and test regularly for the virus."
