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From: asuvax!stjhmc!f627.n290.z1.fidonet.org!Bruce.Wilson@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Bruce Wilson)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: Transmission
Message-ID: <27149@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 15 Sep 89 14:15:12 GMT
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 TC> Does anyone have a guess about the ease and likelihood of
 TC> transmission via oral sex (cunnilingus or fellatio) from 
 TC> the "doer" to the "receiver"? I guess this reduces to the 
 TC> question of to what extent the virus has been found in the 
 TC> saliva of HIV+ people.

To the best of my knowledge, the virus is just as present in the saliva
as it is in any other bodily fluid, which is why "open" ("French")
kissing has been discouraged as an "unsafe sex practice."  The other
half of the transmission equation is its passing *into* the body of the
uninfected person.  Male to female or female to female oral sex appears
to offer just as effective a transmission route as vaginal intercourse,
with the virus passing either way into the body by way of the vagina.
The nature of the penis, versus the vagina, suggests that male to male
or female to male oral sex may not be as effective a transmission route,
but that's not to say it couldn't be a transmission route.

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