Sex With Hudson Now Seen Unlikely to Produce AIDS Virus in His Lover
Since Marc Christian has repeatedly tested negative for infection with the AIDS virus, does that mean he will not become infected with the virus from his sexual relationship with Rock Hudson?
Most likely, he won’t.
The standard blood tests for detecting infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS, are generally considered very accurate.
In the vast majority of situations, individuals who become infected with HIV will test positive within several months of being exposed to it. Physicians sometimes recommend repeat testing at three- to six-month intervals in specific situations, particularly for individuals who continue to engage in behavior that puts them at risk of infection.
In a rare number of cases, the standard blood tests for HIV may not reveal the infection for one to two years, or even more. At the international AIDS meeting in Stockholm last June, scientists described one case in which the delay was 36 months and another in which it was 42 months.
Scientists do not know precisely how frequently these so-called latent HIV infections occur, for example, in a person like Christian who has had sexual intercourse with an infected individual. Hudson died in 1985.
The primary means of becoming infected with HIV are through sexual contact with an infected individual, exposure to contaminated blood, or transmission from an infected mother to her newborn. Researchers are still trying to learn why some individuals who are exposed to the virus become infected while others do not.
