Oral sex

[Ann]

B2 - and you're banned.

Ann

[GSOgymrat]

I've not looked closely at the studies but it seems possible, however unlikely, that HIV can be transmitted through performing oral sex on a man. You have someone with an open lesion in his or her mouth or esophagus, you have someone with a high viral load, you have a lot of friction going on and semen pushed directly into a wound... sounds plausible. I think it is probably an unlikely scenario or there would be a lot more people with HIV.

Whether transmission can happen or not I understand why a lot of people don't want to believe HIV can be transmitted through oral sex. I can also understand why a lot of people wouldn't want to admit they were infected through anal intercourse.

When looking at research studies one of the first questions you have to ask is why someone is doing a study on this topic. There are a lot of emotions and agendas concerning this issue, especially with the people actually doing the research studies. All this makes me very skeptical.

[Toronto37]

When I tested positive for Hiv it also came with chlamydia.  My doctor had said that Hiv loves to piggyback on other diseases making it easier to get infected.  Although I had chlamydia in my bum...       Could this be a possible reason why some people are infected via oral sex? 

[chaton]

In support for those who keep an open mind (and value science as an evolving body of knowledge), an abstract from a recent issue of the American Journal of Pathology:

Tonsil Epithelial Factors May Influence Oropharyngeal Human Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission
Niki M. Moutsopoulos*, Salvador Nares*, Nikolaos Nikitakis, Zoila Rangel, Jie Wen*, Peter Munson, John Sauk and Sharon M. Wahl*
From the Oral Infection and Immunity Branch,* National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the Mathematics and Statistical Computing Laboratory, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda; and the Department of Diagnostic Sciences and Pathology and GreenBaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland


Tonsil epithelium has been implicated in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pathogenesis, but its role in oral transmission remains controversial. To study characteristics of this tissue, which may influence susceptibility or resistance to HIV, we performed microarray analysis of the tonsil epithelium. Our data revealed that genes related to immune functions such as antibody production and antigen processing were increasingly expressed in tonsil compared with the epithelium of another oropharyngeal site, the gingival epithelium. Importantly, tonsil epithelium highly expressed genes associated with HIV entrapment and/or transmission, including the HIV co-receptor CXCR4 and the potential HIV-binding molecules FcRIII, complement receptor 2, and various complement components. Immunohistochemical staining confirmed the increased presence of CXCR4 in the tonsil epithelium compared with multiple oral epithelial sites, particularly in basal and parabasal layers. This increased expression of molecules involved in viral recognition, binding, and entry may favor virus-epithelium interactions in an environment with reduced innate antiviral mechanisms. Specifically, secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor, an innate molecule with anti-HIV activity, was minimal in the tonsil epithelium, in contrast to oral mucosa. Collectively, our data suggest that increased expression of molecules associated with HIV binding and entry coupled with decreased innate antiviral factors may render the tonsil a potential site for oral transmission.

[srmn98]

Hey chaton,

Thanks for that.

Any ideas on how to gain access to scientific journals such as what you just posted online ? Without paying tons of $$ ? 

Thanks,

Sara