Rob.Carr@f81.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Rob Carr) (01/05/90)
Transmission of AIDS (actually the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV) occurs
through the exchange of bodily fluids. "Body fluids" was the term someone came
up with to avoid saying blood and semen, but also includes cerebrospinal fluid,
pericardial lubrication, sweat, saliva, tears, urine, feces, etc.
Most studies have placed the risk of infection from saliva, sweat, tears, and
urine at zero to near zero, to the point that the CDC no longer collects stats
on HIV transmission from contact with saliva, sweat, or tears. (I'm not sure
if they collect on urine, but I doubt it).
So how does a woman transmit HIV to someone else? Well, the vaginal
lubrication produced as a part of foreplay or sex could contain HIV. If the
woman has just started her period or has open wounds in the vagina (abrasions,
microscopic breakages of blood vessels, etc.) the virus could become available
that way also. Anal sex would provide similar modes of transmission.
So how would the partner contract it? Well, for males, any skin disturbance on
the penis would interfere with the skin acting as a barrier against the virus.
This means abrasions, rashes, etc. To tell the truth, I'm not too sure how
likely female-female transmission is. A couple Lesbian friends tease me about
their being in the lowest risk group that there is (lesbian, non-drug user,
non-medical and non-lab work) and that my being a paramedic puts me at much
greater risk than they are (oh, they're monogamous, too). Any female-female
transmission would be by the fluid-broken skin route, too.
Not too important any more is the blood transmission route. Back before they
could test for HIV or knew what AIDS was, this was a significant route. Now
adays, they can test for HIV antibodies and ask people in the high-risk groups
not to donate. Since a few people can be HIV antibody negative yet harbor the
virus for years, the restriction on high-risk groups is, unfortunately, still
necessary.
Please feel free to ask more questions. And if anyone can improve on my answer
or correct any misinformation I may have, please do so (please no comments on
my spelling!).
BTW: the June 3 1989 Science News has the article on HIV antibody negative/HIV
infected individuals.
--
Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!129!81!Rob.Carr
Internet: Rob.Carr@f81.n129.z1.fidonet.orgRob.Carr@f81.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Rob Carr) (01/08/90)
The human organ we call skin is one of the more impressive systems of the
body. Of course, I am impressed by anything which can be considered
"interesting," which leads to some pretty boring discussions.
Anyway, one of the functions of the skin is to keep out dangerous foreign
substances. A perfect example would be the HIV virus. OK, so that's a
redundancy. How else could I phrase it? Anyway, the virus doesn't seem
to be able to penetrate a section of intact skin. That's cool.
Unfortunately, there is the question of what constitutes "skin" and
"intact." For example, topologically speaking, your kidneys are exposed
to the outside. And so is everything in between. While most of your
body is coverskin, the "outside" of your kidneys aren't. Nor is the
bladder nor the ureters nor the urethra. So any virus that makes it's
way up there will have fairly free access to your body. I suspect that
this is a rare occurance. On the other hand, microscopic cuts in the
skin or even skin diseases which have no visible component may prevent
the skin from behaving as a barrier to HIV. Considering what happens to
the penis during ANY form of sex (heterosexual, homosexual, monaural,
stereo, etc) I question how efficient a viral barrier the skin on the
penis is.
I swear I'm not on drugs tonight. Just tired. :-}
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Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!129!81!Rob.Carr
Internet: Rob.Carr@f81.n129.z1.fidonet.orgWounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org (Wounded Bird) (02/07/90)
> The PBS series Aids Quarterly (this past weekend) had a story on >how federal AIDS education money is spent. One segment, on Florida, >pointed out that even in Miami, the health department [which gets the >money from the feds] gives almost nothing to community education programs. >If almost no money is used in the state's center of infection, imagine >how little is spent in Jacksonville where George lives !!! > I didn't quite understand the Colorado section on education funding, >but I believe they spent more money on contact tracing to find 50 contacts >than they did on all education aspects.. I'll have to watch the rerun >to clear this one up. Dave, I watched that documentary and have a vivid memory of what was said since it angered me so much: In Florida about $2.2million is allocated to South Fla. H.R.S. who stated on the program that their finest project was a booth at a Mexican/American festival and a float in a parade. The intimation was that there were no funds left after covering HRS salaries. I choke on this when Dade County is considering cutting in half the budget allotment for" Meals on Wheels" who give 7 meals a week in the form of 7 frozen dinners to 300 people who would otherwise die of malnutrition rather than AIDS. North Carolina (Jesse Helms) does not give one dime to Gay Outreach or educational programs. Apparently blacks represent 48% of HIV cases there. They have one individual who apparently had total funding of $10,500 to go around and teach about AIDS. In Colorado not one dime goes to community outreach and education programs. All of the money goes towards testing and tracing. They spent $450,000 and were able to trace 52 people. That's 9 grand each- more than enough to treat 70 people with AZT, Aerosol Pentamidine and Acyclovir for a YEAR. I must now agree with some posters here that have said the Federal Government is spending too much money on AIDS. If the AIDS Quarterly report is representative of how the Federal Funds are being spent by the states, we are throwing money down the drain and it should be stopped. As a PWA I wonder whether the other Federal Agencies such as the CDC, FDA or NIHC are doing any better. Needless to say I am now very skeptical as well as discouraged. -- Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!135!38!Wounded.Bird Internet: Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org
aids@squid.cs.ucla.edu (Support Account for SCI.MED.AIDS) (02/07/90)
> The PBS series Aids Quarterly (this past weekend) had a story on >how federal AIDS education money is spent. One segment, on Florida, >pointed out that even in Miami, the health department [which gets the >money from the feds] gives almost nothing to community education programs. >If almost no money is used in the state's center of infection, imagine >how little is spent in Jacksonville where George lives !!! > I didn't quite understand the Colorado section on education funding, >but I believe they spent more money on contact tracing to find 50 contacts >than they did on all education aspects.. I'll have to watch the rerun >to clear this one up. Dave, I watched that documentary and have a vivid memory of what was said since it angered me so much: In Florida about $2.2million is allocated to South Fla. H.R.S. who stated on the program that their finest project was a booth at a Mexican/American festival and a float in a parade. The intimation was that there were no funds left after covering HRS salaries. I choke on this when Dade County is considering cutting in half the budget allotment for" Meals on Wheels" who give 7 meals a week in the form of 7 frozen dinners to 300 people who would otherwise die of malnutrition rather than AIDS. North Carolina (Jesse Helms) does not give one dime to Gay Outreach or educational programs. Apparently blacks represent 48% of HIV cases there. They have one individual who apparently had total funding of $10,500 to go around and teach about AIDS. In Colorado not one dime goes to community outreach and education programs. All of the money goes towards testing and tracing. They spent $450,000 and were able to trace 52 people. That's 9 grand each- more than enough to treat 70 people with AZT, Aerosol Pentamidine and Acyclovir for a YEAR. I must now agree with some posters here that have said the Federal Government is spending too much money on AIDS. If the AIDS Quarterly report is representative of how the Federal Funds are being spent by the states, we are throwing money down the drain and it should be stopped. As a PWA I wonder whether the other Federal Agencies such as the CDC, FDA or NIHC are doing any better. Needless to say I am now very skeptical as well as discouraged. -- Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!135!38!Wounded.Bird Internet: Wounded.Bird@f38.n135.z1.fidonet.org <^>v Via SCI.MED.AIDS => AIDSNEWS gateway / aids@cs.ucla.edu