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Home > Prevention > Ask HIV InSite
Is AIDS transmitted by wet-kissing?
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Question

AIDS is transmitted by wet-kissing? It is said that there are two kinds of proteins in saliva which keep from white blood cells from infection. Wet-kissing is considered safe or not?

Answer

"AIDS" cannot be transmitted by any means. "HIV" can be transmitted through mouth to mouth contact but only if there are sores in both mouths. The important risk factor here is blood and puss in the saliva, not the saliva itself. You may recall a media scare over kissing back in July and August of 1997. This was based on a report of a possible transmission between a husband (HIV positive since 1988) and wife (negative until August, 1994), both participants in the California Partner's Study. Scary headlines sell papers, but you are better off reading the actual report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the report, the reason that kissing was suspected at all was because dental records showed that both had a history of gum disease, and the wife became infected around the time she had a root canal (the dentist was negative). So, unless you meet your partners in your dentist's waiting room, this is not a likely scenario for you. Also, in that particular case, the infected husband's viral load was probably elevated at the time, making him more infectious. Note also that other means of transmission, such as unprotected oral sex could not be ruled out in this case. Read the report for more details, and don't believe what the newspaper headlines say.

There are substances in saliva which are being investigated for their anti-viral activity. If you combine the effect of saliva with the effect of oxygen in the mouth, this adds up to a much more hostile environment for the fragile virus than the anus or vagina. So in answer to your question, wet kissing is safe provided there are no sores such as chapped lips, bleeding gums, herpes, loose fillings, etc. Even then, the odds are infinitesmally small.

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