Science Journal

The Truth about HIV

In my second year college, when I was about to enter the comfort room, my friend warned me not to sit on a toilet seat because there is a possibility that the person who used before me has an AIDS and I might acquire that deadly disease. Also sometimes, we even frivolously asked if the cup we were borrowing is contaminated by the saliva of a certain person to avoid HIV infection. And this year, out of curiosity I decided to google about HIV/AIDS if it is transmittable through saliva, and boy I was shocked. What I knew about this dangerous virus is wrong. HIV CANNOT BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH SALIVA unless it has a blood in it. There is no documented case stating that a person is infected from a spit or saliva of an HIV-positive individual. Though HIV can be detected in saliva but in extremely low quantities. Saliva contains proteins and low salt content weakening the virus' infectiousness.

Moreover, another misconception I have learned is we cannot acquire AIDS/HIV from a wet toilet seat peed by someone who might be cross-eyed. HIV cannot reproduce outside the human body and cannot survive long enough. It is a good thing that our skin is an excellent barrier against HIV but if wounded, this opening might give an opportunity for the virus to enter the bloodstream and start spreading itself. 

Also, another fact that I learned was a mosquito that bit an HIV-positive person before cannot transmit the virus to the other. It has three main reasons why. One, mosquito sucks, it does not inject its blood. Its snout is composed of 6 mouthparts. The 4 parts pierce the person's/animal's skin while the other 2 acts as a tube. The first tube injects its saliva into humans for easy access to the blood then the second tube will suck the blood until satiated. Two, HIV is digested in mosquito's gut. HIV cannot replicate itself because there are no T-cells (a white blood cells) to bind with and no T-cells found in mosquito's gut so instead, they are merely digested.

After learning the mind-boggling truth about HIV transmission, I can use these facts as a defense against the ignorant jokes my friend made, saying that they might acquire HIV from the saliva I put on the side their water bottle's opening.