All of us should know about the HIV virus which causes AIDS- how is it transmitted and how to protect ourselves from infection with HIV. You and your partner should not avoid discussing the risks of potential infections. To figure out whether you are in a high-risk group and whether you decide to protect each other, to think upon specific protective measures. Don't forget that an infected person might not understand about the virus in her body for years while the lattes in latent. But the infection is still transmitted. Yet, the only 100% secure way to stay uninfected it not to have a sexual intercourse.

AIDS is not the God's punishment to the homosexuals. Every person can get infected by HIV, no matter the sexual orientation. According to the World Health Organisation, above 70% of the HIV positive individuals around the world got infected during heterosexual intercourse. Also according to the organization, infections have increased by 15% for heterosexual sex, and only 5% after homosexual contacts and intravenous drug usage. And lesbian sex is among the least riskiest. Then if AIDS is a God`s punishment for homosexuals, why do mostly heterosexual people get infected? And for whom is a punishment Cancer which has taken so many victims each year, or multiple sclerosis, or Alzheimer`s, and so many other deadly diseases.

But lets go back to the lesbians. There is no penetration in lesbian sex. The main sexual practices are kissing, petting, and oral sex. For oral sex, the risk of infection is 4 in 10000. I suggest that you read further down a translation of MIGnews materials which relate to the danger of HIV infection during oral sex.

Risk - 4 in 10 000

Oral sex has an extremely low levels of risk for HIV transmission, as shown by the results of scientific studies published during the Second National HIV Conference on prevention, which took place in Atlanta, USA.
Researchers from the University of California (UNCF) in San Francisco tested 200 hundred individuals practising oral sex with HIV- positive partners during 2 consecutive years. They did not find a single case of infection. ''Oral sex is much less riskier''- stated the head of the research team, Kimberley Shiffer. "You can get infected by other sexually transmitted diseases while practising oral sex - gonorrhoea, syphilis, chlamydiae, or herpes. But as far as HIV is concerned, we are left with the impression that risk of transmission through oral sex is much lower than through vaginal and anal sex." 
At the beginning, the researchers planned to compare individuals who became infected through oral sex with such who remained healthy, and then to look for the factors, which could explain these differences. The team of Shiffer looked for men practising oral sex only. There were 198 participants in the test, 194 of them were men who had an average of 3 different partners for a period of 6 months, and multiple sexual contacts with them. And the group was a little more sexually active than the average for the Americans. 20% of the participants had a HIV- positive partner, and many more were simply not interested of the status of their partners.
After 2 years, the scientists discovered that only one of the participants were HIV-positive, but he got the disease through anal sex before the study began.
There was another study in the University of San Francisco, independent of the first one. The researchers used a mathematical model to calculate the risk of HIV infection through a single oral intercourse. They found out that the probability is 4 in every 10000 (0, 004%). In comparison, the risk of infection from a single anal intercourse is 4 in 1000 (0,04%) In this study of Kimberley Shiffer, the researchers gathered saliva from the participants in order to analyse the different factors which supposedly destroy HIV and prevent the transmission of the virus. They identified four chemical substances contained in the saliva which might actually destroy the virus or block it in laboratory conditions. But currently, it is not determined whether these substances react in the same way under normal circumstances.

THESES FROM THE 7-TH CONFERENCE ON RETROVIRUSES

I offer to your attention parts of the report on the probability of infection with the virus though oral sex which was introduced on the 7th conference on retroviruses in San Francisco in 2000. The report is named:

PRIMARY  HIV  INFECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH ORAL TRANSMISSION
(Primary HIV Infections Associated with Oral Transmission)). Authors: B. DILLON*1, F. M. HECHT2, M. SWANSON2, I. GOUPIL-SORMANY2, R. M. GRANT3, M. A. CHESNEY4, J. O. KAHN2. 1CDC, Atlanta GA 2San Francisco Gen. Hosp. and Univ. of California, San Francisco; 3Gladstone Inst. of Immunology and Virology, San Francisco; and 4Ctr. for AIDS Prevention Studies, Univ. of California, San Francisco.

     Goal:
     To research on the supposed cases of HIV transmission through oral sex among individuals who are HIV positive.
     Methods:
     In the period June, 1996 – June, 1999 we tested 122 individuals who had a primary HIV infection, which was discovered through the IFA test and were diagnosed as HIV positive for at least 12 months. We evaluated the risky practices through surveys and interviews. The potential cases of transmission through oral sex were additionally checked upon through more detailed interviews, discussions with the epidemiologists who treated the patient, follow up of their treatment history, and confirmation of their intimate partner.
     Results:
Results: In the initial phase of the research, 20 cases (16.4%) were noticed where there was a real possibility of HIV transmission through oral sex. Out of these 20 cases, we don't have enough information about 3 of them to make a consistent judgement. For the 17 left, in 9 cases (53%) HIV was transmitted by acts unrelated to oral sex and contained in different categories of risky behaviour. Two individuals admitted intravenous drug use, followed by a loss of memory for a certain period of time, four people admitted having an anal intercourse, and the rest had vaginal penetration during the period when they got infected.
As a result of discarding these, 8 cases (6,6%) in which oral sex might have been the source of transmission remained for follow up. And in these cases, each one of the test subjects has considered that the risk of transmission through oral sex was minimal or did not exist.
     Conclusions:
It is possible that the risk of HIV transmission through an oral sex is exaggerated. Even in our detailed research, only 6,6% of the test subjects probably got infected through an oral sex. Despite the minimal risk of infection through an oral sex, in our opinion, this type of sexual intercourse remains as a possible way of HIV transmission as it is practised more often than the other types of sexual intercourses. This conclusion is important for the sake of prevention. It is necessary to conduct a standardized research on HIV transmission through oral sex in order to understand epidemiology and the risk of this sexual practice better. 

Comments in relation to the report:
1 . ) The survey was conducted within a small and homogeneous group- 122 men, all of whom male, homosexual, and citizens of San Francisco. Earlier research conducted on different social groups in different countries around the world and performed among larger number of individuals, show several fold lower possibility for HIV transmission through oral sex. The authors of the report themselves admit that the ''risk of HIV transmission is exaggerated'' and that more detailed and standardized research was necessary.
2 . ) ''...The oral sex remains one of the ways of HIV transmission because it is practised more often...'' The statistical risk of even minimally risk- bearing behaviours is proportional to the frequency of the practice in question. The fact than oral sex is practised more frequently than anal might be a reason for the higher percentage that the research studies turned on.
3 . ) The risk depends a lot on circumstances unmentioned in the report. For example, was there a sperm ejaculation during the intercourse? Are findings valid for the active or the passive partner? (there can be a risk in a contact with blood or sperm, but not saliva or other body fluids) What was the depth of the penetration? The intensity? Were there any open sores?
And many others.

My commentary is that, as a whole, this report does not reject, but only confirms the following:
- The oral sex is risky for the ''receptive'' partner.
- The risk of transmission through oral sex can  be reduced  if  there is no ejaculation  in the mouth of the receptive
   partner.
- As with other types of sex, condom prevents transmission.
- Oral  sex  is  considerably  less  riskier  that  vaginal  or  anal  but  in  some  cases,  it  can become a way of HIV
   transmission
- There is no mentioning of the oral sex between women.

Let us though accept that this risk is reduced from 4 in 10000 contacts to 2 in 10000. Still, there is a risk, and we have no way of eliminating it. Therefore, let us choose our partners carefully, so that they do not fall into the risky lesbian groups.

Such lesbians are:
1 . Those who take drugs intravenously
2 . Lesbians who have had sexual  intercourse  with  men  without  protective  measures (it often happens to young
     lesbians or bisexuals to have a sexual intercourse with a man)
3 . Who had a recent oral sex with a lesbian they hardly knew.

If we do so, I think that the ''Rumours of my death will be strongly exaggerated!'' Lastly, I cannot keep myself from writing one interesting comment here:

ONLY THE ORAL SEX CAN SAVE SOUTH AFRICA FROM AIDS!

This statement is made by David Harrison, Head of the Community Health Organization in South Africa "LoveLife".

According to his words, people can prevent catastrophic spread of AIDS in Africa if they substitute the traditional sex with oral one. He proposes to South Africans who have reached sexual maturity to limit practising sex which has penetration elements. According to LoveLife, there is a theoretical chance of HIV infection, but the latter is negligible.

''If we can substitute high risk for medium or low risk - says Harrison - then, we will save many human lifes.''

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