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From: Leonard.Levin@f140.n150.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Levin)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: ORAL SEX TRANSMISSION ???
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Date: 3 Oct 89 13:24:47 GMT
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I'm not so sure that HIV transmission through oral secretions is such a "dead  
issue."  A notable omission from your list of references is a paper published  
as recently as last year at the Fourth International Conference on AIDS, in  
Stockholm, in which Willy Rozenbaum (Poster 4562) reported two cases of  
patients infected with the AIDS virus whose only risk factor was passive  
fellatio.  This finding suggests that saliva can indeed serve as a vector for  
HIV transmission.  Nothwithstanding this finding, I point out that the latest  
statistics from the Centers for Disease Control report 400 cases of AIDS for  
whom, even after follow-up interviews, no risk factor could be identified.   
Therefore, to rule out oral sex as a risky behavior appears to me to be  
premature.  While I would acknowledge that transmission by the oral route may  
be relatively rare, to classify oral sex as "probably safe" seems misleading  
and dangerous to the uninfected public.  Given the lethal nature of this  
disease, I think being overly cautious is more prudent than taking unnecessary  
risks.

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