OK, I’m man enough to admit I enjoy watching this movie. Whatever, that’s neither here nor there. My question is, as you can see, did Jenny have AIDS? She says she’s sick, and it’s a virus no doctor has seen before, and I am pretty sure that when she says that, the time period fits for when HIV/AIDS was first discovered. That, plus I have no idea what else it could be (how many viruses are that that are unknown?)
AFAIK, yes.
They didn’t know what to call it or how to treat it at that time, so her saying generally “I have a virus and they can’t to anything” is pretty much in keeping with that time period.
Given her gratuitous use of intravenous drugs and frequent, presumably anonymous sex, I didn’t ever think it wasn’t AIDS.
Stupid Question: Why didn’t Forrest or Forrest have it also?
It’s not exactly the Black Death; sometimes you catch it from someone who has it and sometimes you don’t.
Yeah, and one time, female to male contact at that has a very low chance. IIRC, female to male is the least likely (sexual) method to catch HIV.
Aye. In fact, the chances of getting AIDS even from unprotected sex is much less than most people think. I don’t have a cite handy, but if I recall correctly the chances are less than 1 in 50 for any single act of unprotected sex. I hate to make it sound like I’m dismissing the risk here or encouraging this sort of thing, but many people seem to think that having sex even once with someone who has HIV is a guarantee that they will catch it.
Many years ago, my aunt had sexual relations with a man who had full blown AIDS. She didn’t catch it, but she did have his child. Tragically, my cousin never got to meet her father.
I am not read up on this at all, but why didn’t their son have it?
I’m unaware of the transmission rates to fetuses and what if any prevenitive methods were taken in the time period, be gentle! 
In the book, Jenny doesn’t die. She is, however, killed off in the sequel.
Children don’t always get it either. This site says that the risk of passing HIV to a fetus is only 25%.
Didn’t she take off after that one night. Forrest didn’t find her again till years later. Perhaps she caught it after she left, after the boy was born?
From a couple of glances I took at the novel, the movie only vaguely resembles it while Winston Groom wrote the sequel to skewer the movie & its makers who he accused of cheating him out of movie profits.
I’m guessing she caught it some time after Forrest Jr. was born?
I doubt that she got it after Little Forrest was born - she seems to have turned her life around when she went back to Greenbow the time she slept with Forrest. After all, she was working a regular job as a waitress when Forrest was running accross the country, and she was presumably busy raising their son. Also, there’s the incubation period between between HIV and AIDS. I’d say it’s much more probable she got HIV during her wild days. It’s unlikely FOrrest would get it during one-time unprotected sex, and there is a decent chance that Little Forrest would be born without the virus.
StG
When I was in college, in our Human Sexuality class, we had a speaker who was HIV positive and got pregnant intentionally. She agreed with davenportavenger’s 25% chance of passing it in vitro.
I think female-to-female sex is actually the least likely way to pass the virus.