HIV has not been found to spread through:

HIV has not been found to spread through:

• feces

• sweat

• tears

• urine

Families of HIV-infected people have shown clearly that HIV is not spread through:

Casual Contact such as :

• biting insects such as mosquitoes or bedbugs

• sharing of bedding

• sharing of food utensils

• sharing of towels

• swimming pools

• telephones

There is no risk of transmission through:

• Donating blood when sterile needles are used

• Embracing or cuddling

• Kissing without exchange of saliva

• Sharing utensils

• Touching an HIV infected person

or through touching objects such as:

• clothes

• door knobs

• toilet seats
  

Peri-natal

HIV can be spread from Mother to infant during:

• Birth (Peripartum)

• Breast feeding

• Pregnancy (Intrauterine)

Treating Pregnant Mothers

During pregnancy or birth women can transmit HIV to their fetuses. Approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of all untreated pregnant women infected with HIV will pass the infection to their babies, but it can also be spread to babies through the breast milk of infected mothers.

Help Factors

• Anti-HIV drugs are very effective in limiting transmission to infants but some transmission still occurs

• The risk of transmission further diminishes with a Cesarean section

• The drug AZT taken during pregnancy reduces significantly the chance of transmitting HIV to the baby

• AZT treatment of mothers combined with cesarean sectioning to deliver infants reduces infection rates to 1%

Babies born to mothers infected with HIV:

• may or may not be infected with the virus

• share their mothers' antibodies to HIV for several months

If these babies lack symptoms, a definitive diagnosis of HIV infection using standard antibody tests cannot be made until after 15 months of age. By this age babies are unlikely to still carry their mothers' antibodies and will have produced their own if they are infected.

New technologies are being used to detect HIV infection in infants (3-15 months). A number of blood tests are being used to detect the virus in babies younger than 3 months.