CDC Says Deep Kiss Apparently Gave Woman HIV

A woman apparently became infected with the AIDS virus from a deep kiss with a man who had bleeding gums and canker sores--the first reported case of HIV transmission through a kiss, the government says.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized Thursday that the virus was transmitted via the man’s blood, not his saliva. There are no reported cases of people becoming infected with the AIDS virus through saliva.

Both the man and woman had gum disease and poor oral hygiene. He had bad breath and hair-like growths on his tongue, a symptom that sometimes plagues people with the AIDS virus, the CDC said.

Her gum disease had weakened and thinned her gums, making it easier for the virus to get into her blood, the agency said.

The man’s gums often bled when he brushed and flossed his teeth. The couple usually had sex and kissed at night after he brushed, the CDC said.

The couple said they always used a condom during sex. They said it tore once, but that was before the period the CDC believes she was infected. The couple also had oral sex but denied having contact with blood or semen.

“We think it’s highly unlikely that’s how it was transmitted, but we cannot definitively rule it out,” said Dr. Scott Holmberg, a CDC epidemiologist.

Since 1986, the CDC has recommended that couples not kiss deeply if one of them has the AIDS virus, mostly because of the possibility of bleeding gums--not saliva.

Researchers have found a protein in saliva that keeps the virus from infecting white blood cells. And there may be other things in saliva that also fight the AIDS virus that experts just don’t know about yet.