THE TRUTH

I have had to deal with so many people and students asking me if blood is the only body fluid that contains the HIV virus. Today, we are going to answer this question.

Like the name says it, it’s a virus, and viruses are microscopic, meaning they can’t be seen with the necked eyes. For the longest time now, there have been this agument that blood is the only body fluid that habours the HIV virus, and to that effect you are free from HIV once you have a blood free sex.

” I was too careful that no blood was involved, so how a hell did I get myself infected”, this was the statement of a young man who tested positive for the virus. Yes he could actually have been careful or not, but the question is ” HOW CAREFUL CAN YOU BE IN AN UNPROTECTED SEX WITH AN INDIVIDUAL WHOSE STATUS YOU KNOW NOT”?

This is what you should know; HIV virus is found in other body fluids beside blood. It is found in vaginal secretions, anal secretions,breast milk, cerebrospinal fluid, sperms(spermatozoa and semen), and other blood products.

Researchers have also found out that saliva contains the virus , but an individual can not contact it from casual kissing, because saliva is hypotonic, and that property causes it to inactive the Hiv transmission leucocytes(Columbian University,2020). Without not withstanding, infection with this virus is possible during deep kissing (French kiss) if both partner have a bleeding gum or mouth sore which create a portal for direct entery into the circulatory system.

Hiv Can NOT be contacted from other body fluid like sweat and tears, so hand shakes, casual kissing with someone who is infected will not cause you to be infected.

I will like to draw our attention here on something very pertinent. Exposure is NOT equals to infection. You can be exposed to the virus but for you to become infected depends on a couple of factors such as; your immune system, skin integrity viral load of the sick person and wether the person is on Antirectovirals or not. A drop of infected blood on an intact skin is exposure not infection ,which means that the blood can easily dry off and the virus dies, since it is also very fragile and only survives for a very short time out of its host. It will not be the same for a drop of infected blood in the mucose membrane, since since it is more fragile than the skin and also contains moisture which serves as a good milieu for free unbound strands of the virus. Here, infection will depend on the viral load of the sick person whose blood u got in your mucose membrane, your immunity and how thick the cells of that mucosal lining are.

People who practice anal sex are at a greater risk. This is so because the mucosal of the anus is just one cell thick which makes it fragile and easily breaks during anal sex. Same goes for Vaginal sex, but the chances of infection are reduced since the vaginal mucosal is two cells thick.

Now we know that when it comes to sexual intercourse as a means of HIV transmission, you do not need to get a breakage in the mucosal lining of the vaginal or anus before you get the virus because it is found in others body fluids beside blood.

Make your health your priority, for health is wealth.

W. PROSPER. N

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