Snopes puts Halt to Pepsi/HIV-AIDS Rumor

Text messages have been circulating recently about Pepsi and HIV. The text message reads something like this:

Please do not drink any pepsi soda, a worker from the company has put blood contaminated with aids inside the bottles. Please forward.

Upon investigation by The Inside Scoop we have determined that the text message is urban legend but FALSE. The story is believed to have originated in July 2011 and is closely akin to another rumor.

For educational purposes, be mindful that HIV is a virus and it is highly improbable that it could live very long outside of a human body. The Centers for Disease Control has emphatically stated that people cannot acquire HIV through restaurant food. They have said:

HIV does not live long outside the body. Even if small amounts of HIV-infected blood or semen was consumed, exposure to air, heat from cooking, and stomach acid would destroy the virus. Therefore, there is no risk of contracting HIV from eating food. (Emphasis ours).

The CDC takes a strong stance on this issue. It says that "all such (HIV) infections involved sexual contact." Meaning that HIV is contracted through sexual contact between humans. HIV just does not survive long outside of the human body and without the human body fluids, it cannot viably replenish itself.

For more information, please read: Pepsi Contaminated with HIV. You might also read: CDC's Questions and Answers: HIV Transmission . See also: CDC's Fact Sheets Primary HIV Infection Associated with Oral Transmission.