# Can you be born with AIDS? If so what is the chance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655 "2005-11-05T15:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wattschri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/1 "2005-11-05T15:10:37Z")
**AIDS** “In order for a person to catch AIDS (HIV infection), … The more viruses present, the better the chance of one or more viruses succeeding in finding a host …” Fair enough but the virus has to come from someone. What is the chance of being born with AIDS ---
**Author:** ![Wattschri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/2 "2005-11-05T15:13:19Z")
Babies born to women who have not received medication and are infected with HIV have about a 1-in-3 chance of being born with HIV. More than two thirds of the infants infected with HIV may die before they are five years old. how do older sexually active people have it then??? ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/3 "2005-11-05T15:44:19Z")
> [@Wattschri](#): > > how do older sexually active people have it then??? From a sexual partner who was infected. Or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Wattschri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@Wattschri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wattschri)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/4 "2005-11-05T16:08:17Z")
surely the babies born with aids don’t reach an age to become sexually active. or do some people actually have sex with the babies themselves how does the older sexually active community catch it in the first place ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/5 "2005-11-05T16:15:10Z")
> [@](#): > > how does the older sexually active community catch it in the first place I’m not sure what you’re asking. 😕 Sexually active adults get HIV from other sexually active adults. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/6 "2005-11-05T16:27:31Z")
I think he’s asking not what the vector is but where the point of infection was. We know what the vector is–sexual activity, blood transfer, and things like infected needles. So the question is where did the disease first appear so that it could be transferred. (I think.) ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/7 "2005-11-05T16:38:07Z")
I know a little girl with HIV - she does not yet have AIDS. Her mother was a drug user in California, and her father was very lucky not to have caught it himself. He got custody of his daughter and left California before he knew the woman had HIV. When he found out, he and his daughter were both tested - he’s clean so far, she’s positive. She’s 9 at this point. I don’t know if she is on any medication or not now, I’m not in close contact with the family. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/8 "2005-11-05T17:11:02Z")
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. It is transmitted via contact with certain bodily fluids, mostly blood. As a result, common vectors of transmission are through shared IV needles, sexual intercourse (especially those practices which tend to be more rough on the delicate bodily tissues), blood transfusions prior to the ability to adequately test the blood for the presence of the virus, and from mother to fetus. Or just having someone with the virus in your system bleed all over someone else. Having sex is not a requirement for getting the virus into one’s system. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/9 "2005-11-05T17:23:22Z")
> [@Wattschri](#): > > surely the babies born with aids don’t reach an age to become sexually active. I’m sure some of them do. Can’t you live with HIV for 20 years or more with it becoming AIDS? > [@](#): > > how does the older sexually active community catch it in the first place You seem to have it backward. The kids often get it by being born to infected adults. I’ve never heard anyone suggest the disease started in children. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/10 "2005-11-05T17:37:32Z")
HIV can also be transferred via breast-feeding. Elizabeth Glasser got it via a blood transfusion after her daughter’s delivery, and she transferred it to her nursing daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/11 "2005-11-05T18:50:18Z")
If you’re asking how HIV first made it into the human species, well, that’s the million-dollar question. It’s pretty clearly related to similar monkey viruses, and the general consensus is that it first crossed into humans from contact with monkey body fluids. No, that doesn’t mean someone out there was having sex with monkeys. It could have been spread during the butchering or hunting of a monkey. However, it’s far from clear exactly how this happened, and there’s still a lot of uncertaintly and contradictory data around the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/12 "2005-11-05T23:45:13Z")
As I understand it: Transmitting HIV is a matter of having a moderate-to-high maternal viral load, coupled with a vaginal delivery. There was a controversial clinical trial by CDC/WHO in some African nations that used sub-clinical doses of AZT to lower the maternal viral loads in order to reduce the rate of HIV in live births. It worked. [From here:](http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3225/is_n5_v45/ai_12199762) > [@](#): > > Prospective studies of babies born to mothers infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have found transmission rates of 13 to 40 percent. The mechanism and timing of transmission are poorly understood. HIV-1 has been detected in aborted fetal tissue, demonstrating that transmission can occur early in pregnancy. However, newborns more frequently show no signs of infection, suggesting that late tramplacenta] or even intrapartum infection is more common. Some studies have shown increased rates of transmission with prematurity, vaginal delivery and advanced maternal disease. It is not known if fetal infection requires free virus transmission or occurs through maternal cells containing virus. Goedert and colleagues collaborated with centers in nine countries to collect data on twins born to HIV-infected mothers. Of course, the article is dated 1992, so more may be known by now. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-born-with-aids-if-so-what-is-the-chance/329655/13 "2005-11-06T01:09:55Z")
> [@Wattschri](#): > > AIDS (HIV infection) “AIDS” and “HIV infection” are not synonyms. HIV, as QtM notes, is a virus. An AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) diagnosis requires HIV infection along with the presence of one of a number of diseases (called “opportunistic infections,” and including but not limited to Kaposi’s sarcoma and pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), or other clinical standards. It is possible for one to be infected with HIV without having AIDS.