Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucla-cs!Adam.Selene@f269.n107.z1.fidonet.org
From: Adam.Selene@f269.n107.z1.fidonet.org (Adam Selene)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: SALIVA
Message-ID: <27949@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 8 Oct 89 18:47:32 GMT
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Archive-number: 1334

In 1988, the Federal Goverment spent forty million dollars or so to
send  a  copy  of  Surgeon  General  Koop's "UNDERSTANDING AIDS" to *every*
household in the country.

Specifically on the subject of saliva, Admiral Koop said this:

-- Admiral Koop --
-----------------
"You won't get AIDS from saliva, sweat, tears, urine,
or a bowel movement."
"You won't get AIDS from a kiss."

On the same page he also said this:

"No matter what you may have heard, the AIDS virus is hard  to  get
and is easily avoided.

You don't just "catch" AIDS like a cold  or  flu  because  the
virus  is   a different type.  THE AIDS VIRUS IS TRANSMITTED THROUGH SEXUAL
INTERCOURSE, THE SHARING OF DRUG NEEDLES or TO BABIES OF  INFECTED  MOTHERS
BEFORE OR DURING BIRTH."

"You won't get the AIDS virus through  everyday  contact  with
the people around you in schools, in the workplace, at parties, child care
centers or stores. " the Surgeon General continued. "You won't get  it  by
swimming  in a pool.  Students attending school with someone infected with
the AIDS virus are not in danger from casual contact."

"YOU WON'T GET AIDS FROM A MOSQUITO BITE." ...  You  won't  get
it from bed bugs, lice, flies, or other insects, either.

"YOU WON'T GET AIDS FROM CLOTHES, A TELEPHONE OR FROM A TOILET
SEAT.

It can't be passed by using a glass or eating utensils that someone else
has used."

---------------


The GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS, taking an admittedly conservative
view,
categorizes "wet kissing" as "probably safe" OR "possibly risky" depending
on the pamphlet one happens to read.   (Actually the two terms, like
"Half-empty" and "half-full" are OBJECTIVELY synonymous, while conveying
totally different emotional messages.

Still, the desire to believe in, and obsess over, highly
unlikely AIDS risks is not uncommon.  This past week,
ANN LANDERS had to write a "smell the coffee" answer to
a woman who wanted to exclude a PWA relative from  her
wedding reception -- and someone right here in AIDS/ARC
echo felt moved to share "the best of his knowledge" that
saliva contained the same HIV titre as "other bodily fluids"
and that open mouth kissing constituted a meaninful risk.

I don't know why people like to believe things like that ...  maybe
it's
the same thing that makes people enjoy ghost stories and "splatter movies"
like FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH (part 13).
But I don't know of anyone who was fired from his job, lost
his health insurance, or had his house burned down because his neighbors
believed he owned a white plastic hockey mask.


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