Adam.Selene@f269.n107.z1.fidonet.org (Adam Selene) (10/09/89)
In 1988, the Federal Goverment spent forty million dollars or so to
send a copy of Surgeon General Koop's "UNDERSTANDING AIDS" to *every*
household in the country.
Specifically on the subject of saliva, Admiral Koop said this:
-- Admiral Koop --
-----------------
"You won't get AIDS from saliva, sweat, tears, urine,
or a bowel movement."
"You won't get AIDS from a kiss."
On the same page he also said this:
"No matter what you may have heard, the AIDS virus is hard to get
and is easily avoided.
You don't just "catch" AIDS like a cold or flu because the
virus is a different type. THE AIDS VIRUS IS TRANSMITTED THROUGH SEXUAL
INTERCOURSE, THE SHARING OF DRUG NEEDLES or TO BABIES OF INFECTED MOTHERS
BEFORE OR DURING BIRTH."
"You won't get the AIDS virus through everyday contact with
the people around you in schools, in the workplace, at parties, child care
centers or stores. " the Surgeon General continued. "You won't get it by
swimming in a pool. Students attending school with someone infected with
the AIDS virus are not in danger from casual contact."
"YOU WON'T GET AIDS FROM A MOSQUITO BITE." ... You won't get
it from bed bugs, lice, flies, or other insects, either.
"YOU WON'T GET AIDS FROM CLOTHES, A TELEPHONE OR FROM A TOILET
SEAT.
It can't be passed by using a glass or eating utensils that someone else
has used."
---------------
The GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS, taking an admittedly conservative
view,
categorizes "wet kissing" as "probably safe" OR "possibly risky" depending
on the pamphlet one happens to read. (Actually the two terms, like
"Half-empty" and "half-full" are OBJECTIVELY synonymous, while conveying
totally different emotional messages.
Still, the desire to believe in, and obsess over, highly
unlikely AIDS risks is not uncommon. This past week,
ANN LANDERS had to write a "smell the coffee" answer to
a woman who wanted to exclude a PWA relative from her
wedding reception -- and someone right here in AIDS/ARC
echo felt moved to share "the best of his knowledge" that
saliva contained the same HIV titre as "other bodily fluids"
and that open mouth kissing constituted a meaninful risk.
I don't know why people like to believe things like that ... maybe
it's
the same thing that makes people enjoy ghost stories and "splatter movies"
like FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH (part 13).
But I don't know of anyone who was fired from his job, lost
his health insurance, or had his house burned down because his neighbors
believed he owned a white plastic hockey mask.
--
Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!noao!asuvax!stjhmc!107!269!Adam.Selene
Internet: Adam.Selene@f269.n107.z1.fidonet.orgjeffw@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Jeffrey Ward) (10/11/89)
There was an interesting rebroadcast last night of NOVA's
"The Controversial Dr. Koop." In general the program pointed
out many of the laudable activities of the former Surgeon General,
but one note was of particular interest, given the discussion of
HIV transmission vectors.
At a public event, Koop was approached by an elderly man who
obviously felt that HIV was as easy to catch as a common flu
virus. He asked Koop about studies of family members sharing
a household with HIV+ people or people with fully developed AIDS
or ARC. Koop cited a recently completed study on several thousand
families that had one member infected via blood transfusion for
hemophilia. There was not one single case of HIV transmission
to other family members, except sexual transmission between husband
and wife (these were all heterosexual family units).
The real knockout, though, was that he said that after the study
was completed and the results tabulated, he *also* discovered that
in seven percent of the families, family members regularly shared
a toothbrush with the HIV+ individual.
A pretty good illustration of the unlikeliness of HIV transmission
through nonsexual contact, and pretty good evidence that the
recent panic over HIV survival outside the body was driven more
by fear than by cold, hard evidence.
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Jeffrey Ward {pacbell,mtxinu,pyramid,sun}!sybase!jeffw
Sybase, Inc. jeffw@sybase.com
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