Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!Alan.Holmes@brunel.ac.uk
From: Alan.Holmes@brunel.ac.uk (Alan J Holmes)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: Transmission
Message-ID: <27524@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 28 Sep 89 13:35:26 GMT
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Reply-To: Alan J Holmes 
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Archive-number: 1270

Recently on television in the UK there was a series on aids and it's effect
on the family, the story line is that of a man having been on a business
trip somewhere in Europe, visited a prostitute and has returned home to
discover that he has contracted aids.

I am puzzled!,  I can understand how, when a person being penetrated by any
form of sexual intercouse and semen is left behind, the virus is able to 
find its way into the bloodstream of the penetrated.

My query is how can the virus make its way through the relatively tough
skin covering the penis, my understanding is that the virus enters through
broken skin or through a membrane, or does the virus make it's way down
the urinary tract, and if it does make it's entry this way why couldn't
the virus be flushed away by urinating immediately after copulating?

Regards

Alan Holmes