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From: Rob.Carr@f81.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Rob Carr)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: AIDS TRANSMISSION
Message-ID: <30669@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 8 Jan 90 06:43:07 GMT
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The human organ we call skin is one of the more impressive systems of the 
body.  Of course, I am impressed by anything which can be considered 
"interesting," which leads to some pretty boring discussions.
 
Anyway, one of the functions of the skin is to keep out dangerous foreign 
substances.  A perfect example would be the HIV virus.  OK, so that's a 
redundancy.  How else could I phrase it?  Anyway, the virus doesn't seem 
to be able to penetrate a section of intact skin.  That's cool.
 
Unfortunately, there is the question of what constitutes "skin" and 
"intact."  For example, topologically speaking, your kidneys are exposed 
to the outside.  And so is everything in between.  While most of your 
body is coverskin, the "outside" of your kidneys aren't.  Nor is the 
bladder nor the ureters nor the urethra.  So any virus that makes it's 
way up there will have fairly free access to your body.  I suspect that 
this is a rare occurance.  On the other hand, microscopic cuts in the 
skin or even skin diseases which have no visible component may prevent 
the skin from behaving as a barrier to HIV.  Considering what happens to 
the penis during ANY form of sex (heterosexual, homosexual, monaural, 
stereo, etc) I question how efficient a viral barrier the skin on the 
penis is.
 
I swear I'm not on drugs tonight.  Just tired.     :-}

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