Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!usc!ucla-cs!mtxinu!sybase!alchemy!jeffw@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU From: mtxinu!sybase!alchemy!jeffw@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Jeffrey Ward) Newsgroups: sci.med.aids Subject: Re: SALIVA Summary: Koop and AIDS Keywords: AIDS, Koop, vectors Message-ID: <28049@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Date: 11 Oct 89 16:04:32 GMT References: <27949@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU Reply-To: mtxinu!alchemy!jeffw@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Jeffrey Ward) Followup-To: sci.med.aids Organization: Sybase, Inc. Lines: 32 Approved: aids@cs.ucla.edu Archive-number: 1341 There was an interesting rebroadcast last night of NOVA's "The Controversial Dr. Koop." In general the program pointed out many of the laudable activities of the former Surgeon General, but one note was of particular interest, given the discussion of HIV transmission vectors. At a public event, Koop was approached by an elderly man who obviously felt that HIV was as easy to catch as a common flu virus. He asked Koop about studies of family members sharing a household with HIV+ people or people with fully developed AIDS or ARC. Koop cited a recently completed study on several thousand families that had one member infected via blood transfusion for hemophilia. There was not one single case of HIV transmission to other family members, except sexual transmission between husband and wife (these were all heterosexual family units). The real knockout, though, was that he said that after the study was completed and the results tabulated, he *also* discovered that in seven percent of the families, family members regularly shared a toothbrush with the HIV+ individual. A pretty good illustration of the unlikeliness of HIV transmission through nonsexual contact, and pretty good evidence that the recent panic over HIV survival outside the body was driven more by fear than by cold, hard evidence. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey Ward {pacbell,mtxinu,pyramid,sun}!sybase!jeffw Sybase, Inc. jeffw@sybase.com 6475 Christie Avenue Emeryville, CA 94608 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------