My mother is a doctor, and she has never let us swim in swimming pools, because she says that many diseases can be contracted from swimming in public/communal/private swimming pools. Among these diseases in her opinion is HIV/AIDS. I researched about the topic on the Internet and now I know that it isn't a risk.
How do I convince her that it's not a risk, especially because the college I will be wanting to attend has a swimming requirement, and I'm afraid that she might not agree to me going there because of that. Can somebody give me medical articles/names of books that state that HIV/AIDS cannot be contracted in swimming pools/by using public laundry services (like at uni)?
I even showed to her my high school Biology textbook which says that HIV/AIDS cannot live outside the human body and thus cannot be contracted by using the same washing machine/dryer or going to the same swimming pool, but she says that is said to reassure people. She says that she has encountered patients who have contracted many dangerous diseases (including HIV/AIDS) this way, and she says that actually all viruses cannot exist out of any living organism, but once it comes in contact with a living organism, it gets into it and gets activated (this fact is in my textbook also).
She also says that viruses don't ever get killed, they stay out of the human body till they can get in, and then when they enter they start working, and they may get into other people's bodies if there is any kind of contact, even handshaking (if you wipe your nose or eat immediately after that w/o washing your hands). How can I prove to her that viruses get killed? I told her earlier that she's being obsessive-compulsive, but she refuses that.
Can someone give me names of prominent researchers in this field whom I can refer my mother to their articles/books etc.?
Thanks in anticipation for your kind co-operation.