HIV Can Penetrate a Woman's Healthy Genital Skin
Study Finds Virus Can Reach Immune Cells in Just 4 Hours
Dec 17, 2008
A new route of male-to-female transmission of HIV in which the virus can travel through healthy genital skin and reach immune cells in just four hours has been identified by U.S. researchers, according to a Northwestern University new release on Dec. 16, 2008.
It's long been believed that the normal lining of the vaginal tract was an effective barrier to HIV during sexual intercourse, because the large HIV virus couldn't penetrate the tissue.
But the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers found that HIV can penetrate normal, healthy genital tissue to a depth where it can get to immune cells and infect them.
‘Unexpected and Important Result’
The researchers labeled HIV viruses with photo-activated fluorescent tags and were able to track the viruses as they penetrated the outermost lining of the female genital tract (the squamous epithelium) in female human tissue obtained through hysterectomy and in animal models.
"This is an unexpected and important result. We have a new understanding of how HIV can invade the female genital tract," principal investigator Thomas Hope, a professor of cell and molecular biology, said in the university news release. "Until now, science has really had no idea about the details of how sexual transmission of HIV actually works. The mechanism was all very murky," Hope said.
Finding May Help Develop New Vaccines to Protect Women
These findings, if confirmed in future studies, could help in the development of new microbicides and vaccines to protect women against HIV.
“We urgently need new prevention strategies or therapeutics to block the entry of HIV through a woman's genital skin,” said Hope. While condoms are 100 percent effective in blocking HIV, “people don't always use them for cultural and other reasons.”
Women account for 26 percent of all new HIV cases in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Based on its most recent analysis of 2005 data, the CDC estimated that there were 56,300 new HIV infections that year, and 31 percent were due to high-risk heterosexual contact.
More than half of the new cases of HIV infection worldwide are in women.
Ways to Prevent the Spread of HIV
According to the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, the primary ways to prevent the spread of HIV is:
- Having protected sexual intercourse (using condoms) is about the single easiest way to protect yourself from HIV. Never have sex without one unless you are in a monogamous relationship where both partners have been tested twice. Spermicides and birth control pills are useless in preventing the spread of HIV.
- Do not share needles. Drugs are never good, but when you share a needle, in addition to the harm the drug itself can cause, you are also putting yourself at a higher risk of catching HIV. Ending all drug use is the best possible solution.
- A mother with HIV runs the risk of spreading the infection to her unborn child. This risk can be reduced by taking anti-retroviral drugs or a single dose of Nevrapine at delivery. Any mother with HIV should discuss the options with her doctor to help prevent spreading to her child.
- Educate teens. The teenage years are the most susceptible to risky behavior. Talk to your teen about the dangers of unprotected sex. Answer questions they have honestly. Open communication will help your teen resist peer pressure when it comes to sex or drugs.
- Get the whole family involved. Family activities keep the whole family busy and build strong relationships. A healthy family environment can keep teens from peer pressure by not only allowing an open door policy with mom and dad, but good ways to fill their free time.
- Blood transfusions are another way HIV is spread. It is rare because the blood is tested, but unfortunately it can occur. Whenever possible, donate your own blood if you know you will be having a procedure that will require a blood transfusion.
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