POZ Community Forums

HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: caitnop on December 11, 2006, 08:54:20 am

Title: saliva
Post by: caitnop on December 11, 2006, 08:54:20 am

I have read time and time again that saliva is not considered infectiousness. Is this still the case if someone just recently got infected and their viral load is high, thus making the viral load in their saliva high, and thus rendering it infectious? Or is saliva never infectious, regardless of viral load?

Thanks everyone for your dedication and the great work you do

Title: Re: saliva
Post by: Coffeechick88 on December 11, 2006, 09:08:55 am

Saliva is never infectious by itself.  It only can become infectious if it is contaminated--such as by a large amount of blood.

Title: Re: saliva
Post by: Ann on December 11, 2006, 10:13:37 am

cait,

In addition to what Coffeechick quite correctly said, there are over a dozen different proteins and enzymes in saliva that damage any hiv that might be present. Damaged hiv cannot infect.

Also, studies have shown that not all hiv positive people even have ANY detectable hiv in their saliva. (please keep in mind that oral swab hiv tests do not detect the virus itself, they detect the antibodies produced by your own body) It's a good thing that saliva isn't infectious - if it were, we'd be seeing much higher numbers of people with hiv, like on the lines of over 50% of the population. We're not even seeing rates that high in Africa or other places where hiv is widespread.

Ann