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Is Oral Sex Safer Sex?See also:
Fri Jun 28, 2002 7:03 PM ET Researchers examined 135 heterosexual couples who had unprotected oral sex an estimated 19,000 times during a 10-year period. In each couple, either the man or woman was HIV-positive. Yet not one uninfected person contracted the virus that causes AIDS, the researchers say.
By Randy Dotinga FRIDAY, June 28 (HealthScoutNews) -- Has the risk of contracting AIDS through oral sex been overstated? That's the conclusion of a new study in which Spanish researchers examined 135 heterosexual couples who had unprotected oral sex an estimated 19,000 times during a 10-year period. In each couple, either the man or woman was HIV-positive. Yet not one uninfected person contracted the virus that causes AIDS, the researchers say. "It's a much lower risk than perhaps people have been led to believe," says Kimberly Page Shafer, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco's Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. "I'm not going to say people can't get HIV from oral sex, but it's a low-risk activity," adds Page Shafer, who was not involved with the Spanish research. Vaginal and anal intercourse are the main sexual ways to transmit the AIDS virus. For years, oral sex was relegated to a gray area as scientists debated its risks. Most people who engage in oral sex don't wear condoms or use other types of protection, Page Shafer says. Determining the specific risk of oral sex "has been a huge challenge," she says. "People have a repertoire of sexual behaviors, and they don't limit themselves to only oral sex." Last year, Page Shafer reported at a National HIV Prevention Conference that her study of 198 gay and bisexual men who said they'd only had oral sex found that none of them became infected with HIV, even though some engaged in the practice with HIV-positive partners. In the Spanish study, researchers in Madrid followed several hundred couples that included one partner who was HIV-positive from 1990 to 2000. Then the researchers narrowed the number to 110 women and 25 men who engaged in unprotected oral sex but wore condoms during other types of intercourse. The results of the study appear in a recent issue of the journal AIDS. The researchers, counting both fellatio and cunnilingus, estimated that 19,000 oral sex acts had occurred, and men had ejaculated in 34 percent to 41 percent of the fellatio acts. However, no HIV-negative partners contracted the virus. Page Shafer says saliva appears to create an environment that is unhealthy for the AIDS virus. Michael Allerton, HIV operations policy leader with the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Oakland, Calif., says there have been only a small number of confirmed cases of HIV transmission through oral sex. "But it all depends on a lot of things," he says. "There's a lot of variables about whether transmission is going to occur. For example, the AIDS virus may more easily transmit through oral sex to a person with gum disease. "While evidence continues to mount that oral sex is at much lower risk than other activities, the word 'risk' is still there," he adds. Allerton cautions that even if the risk of HIV transmission is low, oral sex isn't risk-free. "You still can get gonorrhea, syphilis and herpes," he says. Federal health officials acknowledge the risk of HIV infection through oral sex is less than compared to vaginal or anal sex, but transmission of the virus is still possible. Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/ Tuesday August 14, 2001 5:37 PM ET Why oral sex is safe? Oral sex is unlikely to transmit HIV, researchers sayBy Emma Hitt, PhD See also: Is Oral Sex Sex? ATLANTA (Reuter Health) - Unprotected oral sex is highly unlikely to transmit HIV infection, according to findings from a small study released Tuesday. In a study of mainly male participants who had performed oral sex on a male partner, researchers found that the risk of HIV transmission through this sex act was virtually nil. Dr. Kimberly Page-Shafer, of the University of California, San Francisco, presented the findings at the National HIV Prevention Conference here. ``We found that the probability of acquiring HIV through that specific sexual activity is very, very low,'' Page-Shafer said in a statement. However, she added, given the small study sample of 198 people, ``we cannot rule out the possibility that the probability of infection is indeed greater than zero.'' In fact, although oral sex poses a much lower HIV risk than unprotected anal or vaginal sex does, experts have stressed that oral sex does not equal safe sex. Recent studies in other populations have indicated that 6% to 8% of HIV cases may be attributed to oral sex. The 198 participants in this study, nearly all male, were recruited from anonymous testing and counseling sites in San Francisco. All identified themselves as gay or bisexual and reported no anal sex, vaginal sex or injection drug use during the 6 months before the study. Participants were screened for HIV infection with a test that can detect an infection contracted within the past 6 months, as well as one that detects the longer-term presence of HIV infection. Nearly all reported having had unprotected oral sex with a male partner, and 20% said they had performed oral sex on an HIV-positive partner. Of those, 89% did not use a condom and 40% swallowed ejaculate. Yet only one HIV infection was found among all participants, suggesting that the risk of transmission through oral sex was close to zero. According to the researchers, that one infection had not been acquired within the last 6 months and so may not have been attributable to oral sex. Although the rate of HIV transmission in this study was near zero, Page-Shafer cautioned that the findings do not mean oral sex poses no HIV risk. She also stressed that other sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia, can be transmitted orally. Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010814/hl/hiv_oral.html |
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