If I have unprotected anal sex with someone with HIV, how does that infect me? Doesn’t it need to enter my bloodstream?
When I first read the thread title, I thought this was someone who didn’t realise that AIDs was a virus!
Anal sex is pretty rough, and it’s not unusual for it to cause tears (remember it’s not actually meant to be used for that). Those tears allow AIDs to enter the bloodstream.
I beliece copperwindow is talking about being the pitcher and not the catcher.
Oh.
Aaaah…
Not a fiddler’s.
From the CDC (cite):
Frankly, if you have open sores on your penis you aren’t putting it in me through ANY orifice, anyway.
Yeesh, jayjay’s soooooooo picky!
Who is Frankly and what’s with the sores?
The transmission rates are actually quite low though. Apparently a single unprotected anal encounter for the receiver carries a 3% chance of infection, and for the penetrator a 1.5% chance. Not negligible by any means but finding that out shocked me somewhat. Of course this isn’t a licence to not have protected sex, any more than there being one bullet in a gun should be considered licence to play Russian roulette.
Those stats surprised me as I always thought the risks overwhelmingly favored the receiver. I always thought (incorrectly) that the giver was pretty safe…learn something new every day.
In 2005 I worked with the U of Chgo on a study of HIV transmission in men who have sex with men, one thing they found was the insertor in anal sex had around a 75% LESS transmission rate than those who use condoms. In otherwords for every 100 men who are STRICT tops (NEVER bottoms) 25 were infected while 75 were not.
This is due to the fact HIV must pass semen to blood. This coupled with the fact ejaculation expels the semen OUT, decreases the risk but doesn’t eliminate it.
However one interesting thing was found, the above applied to people infected with HIV and who have NOT yet developed AIDS.
When they compared the infection rates for STRICT tops inserting in people diagnosed with AIDS (not just HIV) the infection rates for tops and bottoms were nearly identical
So the possiblity of being infected also depends on the condition of the bottom.
Infection rates also increase in the presence of other STDs to the tune of about 50%. In other words if one or the other partner is infected with an STD (such as syphillis) the rate of infection is much greater.
The above applies only to infection rates among men who have sex with men (with exclusive with men or both men and women
Pun intended?
I dunno, just think about it. There is normally no bleeding during vaginal intercourse (not supposed to be, anyway) but men can still contract it from a woman that way. Maybe it has something to do with the urethra?
During even vanilla, penile-vaginal intercourse, the tissues of the vagina (and to a lesser extent, the penis) develop what are called micro-tears that are not evident but can serve as a route for HIV and HBV transmission.
ETA: In addition, lots of people have herpes lesions and don’t know it, and lots of the gooier STIs (those that cause discharges) can increase the risk of HIV infection.
Almost totally off topic - sorry for the hijack:
How many people with full blow AIDS actually even feel like having sex? My (possibly wrong) belief was that a person couldn’t be diagnosed with full blown AIDS until certain symptoms were present.
I would think the presence of those symptoms would make a person feel decidedly unsexy. No? Maybe? Depends? Personally I think if I had thrush in my mouth (for instance) I really wouldn’t feel like snogging, ya know?
/hijack
And to add to alice’s hijack, who would want to have sex with a completely sick partner with AIDS?
The definition of “full-blown AIDS” also includes merely having your CD4 (T-cell) count drop below 200. This puts you at risk for opportunistic infections but antiretroviral drugs can suppress virus production to even undetectable levels and allow an immune system to bounce back. You still have AIDS because your immune system had bottomed out, and are at risk for that happening again if you go off your meds or your viral strain becomes resistant to the drugs, but as long as the meds work, you might not be outwardly distinguishable from any other average HIV- person.
I’ve seen patients who have AIDS who look as healthy as anyone, including some with impressive muscular builds. (The common look for someone with AIDS not doing as well is a particularly overly-lean or gaunt appearance.) Many have full-time jobs, partners (either HIV+ or HIV-), and spend time traveling, exercising, and doing other leisure activities. One that I know regularly goes to Africa as part of his job, to bring assistance to villages ravaged by HIV; they bring doctors, medications, do checkups, provide needed equipment, etc.
One of the patients even bounced back from weighing around 90 lbs, deathly ill with organs failing, to the point where he now has a very athletic, somewhat muscular build, does consulting work, and generally looks like your average healthy person.
You call that low? If there was a 3% chance of a fatal crash every time I drove my car, it’d be Shanks’s mare for me now and forever!
It’s not what I’d call high, certainly, but no it isn’t that low either (I did say in my post it wasn’t negligible). But it was a surprise to be told this by a doctor in a GUM clinic after a lifetime of safe sex ads that effectively say “use a condom every time or you’re dead”.