Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!Leonard.Levin@f140.n150.z1.fidonet.org From: Leonard.Levin@f140.n150.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Levin) Newsgroups: sci.med.aids Subject: Re: ORAL SEX TRANSMISSION ??? Message-ID: <27652@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Date: 3 Oct 89 13:24:47 GMT Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU Organization: FidoNet node 1:150/140 - Black Bag BBS, Newark DE Lines: 19 Approved: aids@cs.ucla.edu Archive-number: 1292 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. -- Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!noao!asuvax!stjhmc!150!140!Leonard.Levin Internet: Leonard.Levin@f140.n150.z1.fidonet.org