Are roadside bombs in Afghanistan packed with HIV-laced needles?
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The Rumor Doctor, a lovechild of the sublime and the ridiculous, felt compelled to look into a report in a British tabloid that the Taliban are using needles infected with HIV in their roadside bombs.
The purpose of using the infected needles is to prick bomb disposal technicians trying to disarm the bombs, or infect troops as shrapnel, according to The Sun. The British paper cited Patrick Mercer, a conservative member of parliament, as the man behind the report. The Doctor went right to the source for details.
“This is not a weapon as such,” Mercer said in a phone interview. “These are needles and razor blades which are put in position around probably dummy improvised explosive devices, so that anybody trying to lift one of these is likely to be scratched or cut.”
Mercer said he learned about these devices from British bomb disposal technicians training ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan. The technicians have been issued Kevlar gloves to counter the threat.
He could not say for certain whether the Taliban have used these devices.
“That wasn’t a question I asked directly, but I got the impression that these are certainly being employed by the Taliban, al-Qaida, etc.,” he said. “I’m not aware of any injuries that have been caused by it so far.”
The Doctor caught the International Security Forces-Afghanistan unaware with questions about the devices.
“Right now, we’ve got diddly,” said ISAF spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks via e-mail. “No reports, no intel, nothing – but we’re checking.”
The Joint IED Defeat Organization didn’t have any confirmed reports of infected-needle bombs, but said it’s not unusual for the Taliban to employ anti-tamper devices.
“This is more a scare tactic than a realistic weapon,” said JIEDDO spokeswoman Irene Smith in an e-mail.
A spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control said such a device would not be very effective, in part because drying HIV-infected blood or other bodily fluids reduces the infectious virus by between 90 percent and 99 percent.
“There is a theoretical risk of HIV infection if a person is stuck with a needle that is contaminated with HIV, but we know HIV does not survive well outside the body, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote,” said Kay Nikki.
RUMOR DOCTOR’S DIAGNOSIS: Sounds more like an enemy propaganda campaign than a widespread new tactic.
NEXT WEEK: The truth about saltpeter.
Hear a rumor? E-mail the rumor doctor at: jeffrey.schogol@stripes.osd.mil
Mohammed Abbasi 
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