Modes

All persons with AIDS or with antibodies to HIV are thought about carriers of the virus, able to transmitting the infection to others.

Although HIV has been isolated from the blood, semen, saliva, tears, urine & breast milk of infected individuals, the only known transmission has been by blood & semen. Studies of nonsexual household contacts of AIDS patients indicate that casual contact with saliva & tears does not lead to transmission of infection.

In most cases, HIV appears to have been transmitted through or more of routes: sexual contact, intravenous drug administration with contaminated needles, administration of blood & blood products, & passage of the virus from infected mothers to their unborn kids.

HIV infection can persist even in asymptomatic individuals for at least several years. Retrovirus infections in animals persist for life. The presence of HIV antibody is presumptive facts of current infection & infectibility.