Why do some viruses/diseases exclude saliva as a main source of contracting the condition.

I'm not talking about this disease in particular, but I been researching stds and HIV and i cannot rap my head around why most of these viruses and many other diseases have a low or no chance of contracting through kissing/saliva? What makes this safe when most other transferable fluids will infect the partner?

I don't know what's safe or not, but I think it would have to do with the saliva destroying whatever it is.

Maybe it's the acid.

reply to post by Dogdish


I dunno about that, if it was simple as something in saliva to destroys the HIV virus wouldn't we of herd it by now?

reply to post by hautmess


Hautmess.....

Saliva is considered by many to act as a biocide.

Here is a Wiki reference:

".....saliva contains such antibacterial agents as secretory IgA, lactoferrin, lysozyme and peroxidase"

en.wikipedia.org...

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not


If something in Saliva kills HIV off why aren't people using it to cure?

reply to post by hautmess


They can't use it because HIV is an obligate intracellular organism, being a virus. For the large majority of it's life, it is inside the CD4 cells of the host's immune system. The biocides in saliva are released by non-specific immune cells, meaning they can't be primed to specifically attack HIV or HIV-infected cells. Most of them are anti-bacterial, as there are no instances of bacteria needing to be saved, not even our commensal bacteria (they are integral to our health, obviously, but find other ways to evade the immune system).

The main reason HIV and other viruses can't commonly be spread via saliva is a matter of migration. There is little to no way for HIV particles or HIV infected cells to find their way to your salivary glands. Of course, you'll have the stray infected CD4 cell that migrates there during an immune response, if you have an infection in your salivary or parotid glands, but the number or viral particles needed to transmit an infection is rarely, if ever, present in saliva.

Viruses and bacteria that DO target the cells of salivary glands, though, can of course be transmitted by saliva. A good example is mononucleosis, which is called "the kissing disease" for obvious reasons.

HIV is a blood pathogen. It dwells within DNA based fluids such as semen or blood. Saliva contains none and therefore HIV cannot be transmitted. It must have a blood to blood pathway in which it can attach it self to the DNA of your cells and inject its RNA to replicate.

Originally posted by AzoriaCorp
HIV is a blood pathogen. It dwells within DNA based fluids such as semen or blood. Saliva contains none and therefore HIV cannot be transmitted. It must have a blood to blood pathway in which it can attach it self to the DNA of your cells and inject its RNA to replicate.

DNA has nothing to do with it, nor does "blood to blood". HIV can be spread through semen and vaginal fluid, as well as blood.

It is entirely dependent on the presence of infected cells, and the compartments those cells migrate to. Also, HIV doesn't attach itself to your DNA. It uses a viral protein to reverse transcribe the RNA into DNA which can be read by the cell's ribosomes. The only time the viral genome comes in contact with the host genome is during integration.