Transmission

Transmission

The AIDS virus is transmitted from one person to another through several methods:

• Blood or blood products

• Mother to infant

• Sexual contact

• Sharing of needles or syringes

Blood

• Accidents in health care (i.e., needle stick or other medical instruments)

• Ear piercing

• Needle sharing with an infected person for any reason (IV drug needles [only minute amounts of blood are needed]

• Receiving a blood transfusion with infected blood (blood donations in the U.S. have been screened for HIV since 1985)

• Steroid needles

Blood or blood products

Prior to 1985 HIV was frequently transmitted by blood transfusions because there was no effective way to test blood for the AIDS virus.

Contact with infected blood

HIV was transmitted through transfusions of contaminated blood or blood components, prior to the screening of blood for HIV infection and before the introduction in 1985 of heat-treating techniques to destroy HIV in blood products. The risk of acquiring HIV from transfusions today is extremely small.

Sexual Contact

The virus can be spread in:

• Artificial insemination with semen from an infected person

• Body fluids including sperm

• Oral sex

The infection can be spread from unprotected sex (sex without condoms) with an infected partner, including:

• anal intercourse

• oral intercourse

• vaginal intercourse

and is spread from:

• men to men

• men to women

• women to men

• women to women

The virus can enter the body during sex through the:

• lining of the vagina

• mouth

• penis

• rectum

• vulva

You are also at risk if you have another sexually transmitted disease such as:

• Bacterial Vaginosis

• Chlamydia

• Gonorrhea

• Herpes

• Syphilis

as you are more susceptible to acquiring HIV infection during sex with an infected partner

HIV has been detected in the saliva of infected individuals, however, no evidence exists that the virus is spread by contact with saliva. Tests show saliva has natural compounds that inhibit the infectiousness of HIV. No evidence has been found that the virus is spread to others through saliva such as by kissing. No one knows, however, the risk of infection from so-called "deep" kissing, involving the exchange of large amounts of saliva.