Psychological and disease issues

[redrover]

This came up as far as I know entirely hypothetically, a diver refusing to share air if a need arises, but it got me to wondering.

My initial thoughts were there could be some valid reason, vaguely medical such as disease. (I have this situation and I am not willing to expose another person to it kind of thing.) Can you think of a situation where this may be applicable?

And, the general consensus here is that anyone unwilling to share air has a personality disorder far more dangerous than the single issue of unwilling to assist an OOA buddy. Would you agree?

 

[scorpenesub]

Interesting hypothesis. Say if the buddy has Hepatitis B (HBV), the risk of infection is present if the shared air source is drawn straight from the donor who is an infected person to the buddy. In this case, anyone partnering an unfamiliar buddy should enquire about the latter's medical history, annoying as it may be. I'll rather be annoying and safeguard my own health.

 

[redrover]

Yeah, that is what my first take was LOL, a nice person.
I hope everybody responding sticks to the questions presented and doesn’t go off on the full disclosure tack. That was a very heated topic on its own.

 

[wedivebc]

This came up as far as I know entirely hypothetically, a diver refusing to share air if a need arises, but it got me to wondering.

My initial thoughts were there could be some valid reason, vaguely medical such as disease. (I have this situation and I am not willing to expose another person to it kind of thing.) Can you think of a situation where this may be applicable?

And, the general consensus here is that anyone unwilling to share air has a personality disorder far more dangerous than the single issue of unwilling to assist an OOA buddy. Would you agree?

If someone stated before the dive that they had (whatever) medical problem and I should not share air with them I would still happily dive with them given time to equip myself accordingly (redundant air source). If a person refuses someone air as they are taking their last gasp the word homicidal comes to mind.

 

[TSandM]

In fact, the viral load in saliva from things like hepatitis and HIV is extremely low; to my knowledge, there has never been a reported case of either being transmitted by saliva. I'd be more concerned with someone who had an active outbreak of oral herpes or MRSA, although I'd rather contract either than drown.

I don't know if I'd say that someone unwilling to share gas under any circumstances had a personality disorder, but he definitely has an unusual set of priorities. He's either consummately selfish or extremely phobic of something to do with air-sharing.

 

[Sonofasailor]

The herpes thing came up after my cave training, when a buddy jokingly said it would be very easy to spread HSV-1 (oral herpes) through the cave community. Because we do air sharing drills before every dive, and the very regulator that you donate to your buddy goes back into your mouth, I wonder what the actual possibility is.

At one time I came to the conclusion that I got sick from sharing air with some random person that ran out of air, and couldn't find his buddy. My buddy recognized the situation at 70ft on a wreck dive, we called our dive, and brought the low on air guy back to the anchor line. By the time that we ascended to 50ft, my buddy had to donate his long hose to the guy who was now panicked and OOA. By the time we were at our safety stop, he had drained my buddy's single Steel 72 down to 500psi. The OOA guy was then transferred to me, as I had a steel 95 with 1700psi in it. The situation was under control, we completed our safety stop, and without thinking about it at the surface I put the donated reg back in my mouth to swim to the boat ladder. The next morning, my buddy and I were both sick, same symptoms, with this "mystery illness" for a month.


So now, I wonder how much validity the herpes thing has.

 

[mbidd]

Speaking from a medical stand point, you definitely can not get Hepatitis or HIV from saliva. You could get Herpes but anyone with a cold sore already has been exposed at some time or another and that's most of us. You sure know the first time you get exposed to oral Herpes as your first outbreak is usually awful. Likely your save on low air guy caused you to get a respiratory illness. Maybe why he ran out of air early if he was diving sick. Moral of story: Don't dive sick!

 

[bleeb]

Extreme case compared to sharing a reg, but:

"Moms Pre-Chewing Food Gave HIV to Kids"
<http://www.physorg.com/news121527268.html>