Myths and facts about HIV transmission in relation to skin piercing, kissing, mosquito bites and danger to medical and paramedical professionals – How does HIV spread from one person to another, four main conditions that must be fulfilled for HIV transmission
Common myths and facts about HIV transmission !
Skin piercing:
There are several cultural practices in India that involve skin piercing. These include piercing ears or nose for ornamental reasons, tattooing, circumcision etc.
At the moment, skin piercing is not one of the major route of transmission of HIV infection in India. However, if the number of people with the infection were to increase in the general population, the risk is likely to be higher.
This is why it is important to ensure that the equipment used for skin piercing is sterilised well. Large number of people prefer to get ears and nose pierced by traditional goldsmiths than medical practitioners.
Irrespective of the current level of risk, it is important to ensure that the instruments used by them are sterilized as per the recommended guidelines.
Oral route:
Some studies have persuasively indicated that HIV is present in the saliva and other body fluids. This is why many people believe that kissing, sharing utensils etc with people who have HIV can transmit the infection. This is not necessarily true.
The concentration of HIV in the saliva is very low and it therefore carries a very low risk of transmitting the infection. Also, it is believed that the chemical substances in the saliva can destroy the HIV.
If the virus is ingested in the stomach, the acids in it are likely to inactivate or destroy the virus. The risk through oral route is therefore very low.
It can be higher if there are cuts or wounds in the mouth or bleeding gums. This is because the blood that oozes out of the mouth can have HIV.
There are several misconceptions about the spread of HIV infection through oral sex. Some studies have indicated that oral sex has a higher risk of transmitting HIV infection as compared to kissing.
This is because oral sex allows vaginal secretions to enter the mouth. In case there are wounds or injuries in the mouth, the virus present in vaginal secretions or semen can easily enter the body.
Although the risk of getting HIV infection is lower with oral sex if there are no wounds in the mouth, it is recommended as an alternative to safer sex.
Mosquito bites:
Many people believe that since mosquito bites transfer blood from one person to another, it can also spread HIV infection from an infected person to other. This is however not true.
The amount of blood that a mosquito sucks while biting a person is very small. Thus, even if the virus were to enter the mosquito’s body, the number of viruses will be too less to cause infection in others.
Also, the HIV virus does not live outside human fluids. Mosquitoes can spread diseases such as malaria because the malarial parasite multiplies in the body of the mosquito and increases the number of parasites that can infect other people.
HIV does not multiply outside the human body and therefore cannot increase in number in the mosquito’s body.
Medical and paramedical professionals:
People in medical and paramedical professions often come in contact with body fluids of infected people. This is why some people believe that those in these professions are at high risk of getting HIV infection.
If the recommended precautions are taken, such as using double gloves, avoid performing surgeries-both minor and major- when they have cuts or injuries in their hands or any other body part that is likely to come in contact with the patient, medical and paramedical professionals can prevent the transmission of infections.
These precautions are called Universal Precautions against HIV infection transmission. Regular practice of these precautions can protect these professionals.
Common myths and facts about HIV transmission and how does HIV spread from one person to another ?
HIV infection spreads through four main routes:
Sexual transmission
Blood transfusion
Injections, especially intravenous drug injections and
Mother to child transmission during pregnancy or delivery
Important: More than 74 percent people are estimated to have got the infection through sexual transmission.
The effectiveness of transmission of virus routes is not the same. Effectiveness of transmission means the probability of getting the infection with one encounter with the virus through the route.
The effectiveness is often expressed as percentage. This means the number of times a person can get HIV infection through exposures to the route of transmission.
It is important to remember that although sexual route has a very low effectiveness of transmission, it accounts for more than 74 percent infections in India.
This is mainly because of the high frequency of occurrence of sex acts among people as compared to the frequency with which people take intravenous drugs or get blood transfusions.
HIV is present in all body fluids of an infected person. It is however more in number in blood, semen and vaginal fluids. Semen is the thick whitish secretion of the male reproductive organs that is discharged from the same opening through which the urine comes out.
Vaginal fluids are the secretions from the vagina, which is like a canal in the female reproductive system. It starts at the opening of the womb or uterus, and opens out of the body just behind the opening for urine and in front of the opening for stool.
HIV virus can be easily killed by heat and by drying.
There are four main conditions that must be fulfilled, for HIV to be spread from one person to another, through any one of the four routes mentioned above.
These include:
– HIV must be present in the body fluids, especially the semen, vaginal fluids, blood.
– HIV must live during the period it is out of the body. It can live for a long time in blood stored at cold temperature for transfusion but lives for a very short time in all other situations as the body fluids easily dry. HIV cannot survive in dried body fluids.
– There must be a convenient place for the virus to enter the body. The normal skin forms a very effective barrier against HIV and will find it difficult to enter the body through intact skin. The virus can easily enter the body from where there is either damage to the skin or a delicate skin. Anus is the opening of the digestive tract through which stool is passed out of the body.
– The number of viruses in the body fluids must be adequate to infect others after it is transferred on contact with body fluids. If the number of viruses that enter another person is less, the infection may not occur.
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