CAN YOU GET HIV FROM KISSING?

PERHAPS the worst pandemic affecting the lives of many Africans is the rate at which HIV is being transmitted.
HIV/AIDS may not be Africa’s biggest killer but there are many myths attributed to it making it very dangerous.
“Can one get infected by HIV through kissing a person who is infected?”
Before answering this question, it is important to understand how HIV is transmitted.
The truth is, kissing may not be as physically intimate as sex but there is a lot of fluid exchange during kissing just like when two people are having sex.
It is through these fluids that viruses just as the HIV are able to pass from one body to another.
So does this mean one can get HIV just by kissing; especially the kind of kissing that involves the locking of tongues like “French Kissing”?
If HIV could be transmitted easily through saliva by kissing, millions more would have been affected but this is not the case.
Other diseases can easily be transferred by kissing due to saliva exchange but the question is, can HIV then be transmitted in the same way?
If other sicknesses are transferred through kissing by saliva, then can HIV not be transmitted in the same way?
Saliva contains digestive agents, including millions of anti-bodies for protecting the body against Bacteria and even Viruses.
It is because of these anti-bodies and digestive agents that the HIV parasite does not thrive in human Saliva.
The HIV virus thrives in human fluids, especially blood and mucus aligning the vagina, but it has not adapted to living in Saliva due to the strong antibodies present.
Parasites such as bacteria may have adapted to living in Saliva, but the HIV virus has not evolved to that level – at least for now.
Furthermore, unlike blood, Saliva does not contain enough salt, which is another element HIV thrives on for it to survive in an environment.
In fact, a study once showed that out of 1000 samples of Saliva collected from HIV-positive people, only one was found  to contain the HIV virus
Even then, the quantity of the HIV found in the sample was not enough to be transmitted to another person through kissing.
This is, however, not to say one cannot contract HIV by kissing although we have to look at many other circumstances before we can safely say it is possible.
You may then ask, “what if the person you are kissing has abrasions (cuts) in the mouth causing blood flow; can you then acquire HIV if the partner also has cuts and the two kiss? What if you both bite each other during a passionate Kiss and then there is an exchange of blood, would you, then get HIV?
According to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, prolonged French Kissing with an HIV positive person could result in HIV transmission.
The HIV virus can enter the body through cuts in the mouth which result in the transmission of the parasite to the next person.