Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!bbncca!sdyer
From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: re: A Lay question about AIDS?
Message-ID: <1278@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 20-Jan-85 15:17:20 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.1278
Posted: Sun Jan 20 15:17:20 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 04:13:46 EST
References: <182@ttidcc.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 16

>Reasonable:
>
>One of the primary vectors of AIDS is anal  intercourse.  This  is  because
>the  lining  of  the  rectum isn't built for such treatment and can develop
>tears which provide a  direct  path  to  the  bloodstream.  The  virus  (or
>whatever) is carried and passed on in semen.

It's important not to turn a single, controversial article in the JAMA into
popular folklore--the facts simply aren't there.  About all one can say now
about the transmission of AIDS is that it requires the exchange of bodily
fluids.  The present epidemiology of the syndrome is adequately explained
by the characteristics of the populations in which it occurs.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima,ihnp4}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbnccv.ARPA