• Introduction
• AIDS and HIV:
  The Basics
• Transmission
  of HIV
• AIDS and HIV in Schools
• Protecting School Employees Against HIV Infection
• Rights of HIV-Infected Staff and Students
• UFT Services for HIV-Infected Staff
• AIDS Education in the Schools
• Obtaining More Information About AIDS

Transmission of HIV

How does the HIV infection spread from one person to another?

HIV infection can be transmitted only if the infected blood, semen or vaginal secretions of an HIV-positive person enter directly into the bloodstream of another person, in concentrations high enough to cause infection.

There are three main ways that can happen: sexual contact, blood-to-blood contact and mother-newborn transmission.

How does sex spread HIV?

HIV can be spread by having sexual intercourse with someone who is infected with the HIV virus. This includes sex between men and women, as well as sex between men and sex between women. Anal and vaginal sex are the main transmission routes, but oral sex also involves a risk of infection.

During sexual intercourse, the human immunodeficiency virus—which is found in the semen, vaginal secretions and blood of an HIV-infected person—can enter the bloodstream of a sex partner through tiny openings in the mucous membranes of the rectum, vagina, penis or mouth.

How can sexual transmission be prevented?

Abstinence from sexual intercourse (not having any sex) eliminates all risk of sexual transmission.
Sex with just one partner is safe if neither partner has been exposed to the virus and both partners remain monogamous.

Correct use of a latex condom has been shown to be 99 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission. If used incorrectly, however, condoms can break or slip off. For effective protection, a condom must be used every time there is sexual contact (vaginal, anal or oral) from start to finish.

Using a contraceptive foam or cream that contains the spermicide nonoxynol-9 along with a condom may help to kill the virus.

Although there are few studies of the effectiveness of dental dams, it may be a good idea to use one during oral sex or oral/anal sex.

Tell me about the risk of blood-to-blood contact.

HIV can be spread by sharing or reusing infected needles and syringes during injecting drug use. Reusing needles also is dangerous when injecting steroids or getting a tattoo.

Since 1985, all blood used in transfusions has been screened for HIV, so the risk of contracting the virus through a transfusion is less then one in 150,000. Many people planning surgery choose to store their own blood for use during the operation in order to eliminate any risk.

I thought only gay men could catch AIDS. Are you telling me that anyone can become infected?

Yes. Anyone can become infected with HIV if he or she has sex or shares needles with an infected person. Whether you catch HIV depends on what you do, not who you are.

Globally, more than 70 percent of all HIV-positive individuals were infected through heterosexual intercourse. Forty percent of people infected with HIV around the world are female.

In the United States, most of the earliest AIDS cases occurred among gay men, but that pattern is changing. In New York City, injecting drug use has replaced homosexual intercourse as the leading cause of HIV infection. Transmission through sex between men and women also has been increasing: among American women who have AIDS, about half were infected with HIV through sex with an infected man.

Did you say HIV also could be transmitted by a mother to her newborn child?

A woman who is HIV-positive can infect her child during pregnancy or delivery or, more rarely, through infected breast milk. Although all children born to HIV-positive women initially test positive for the virus because they carry their mother’s antibodies, about three quarters of these infants become HIV-negative when they develop their own immune systems during the first year of life. Preliminary studies suggest that treatment of the mother with a drug called AZT during pregnancy can dramatically reduce the transmission rate.

What about transmission in the workplace?

The only documented cases of HIV transmission in workplace settings have occurred in hospitals or health care facilities. And there have been only 42 such documented cases in all of the United States as of June 1994. Most of these cases have involved an injury with a needle contaminated with the blood of an HIV-infected patient. Transmission also can occur if infected blood splashes on a healthy person’s eyes, nose, or mouth or comes in contact with a wound in the skin that allows blood to penetrate.

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