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Recommended: Prevention of hiv

HIV, like many other STD's is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse. However, it can also be transmitted by infected "blood transfusions", an infected mother to fetus, and sharing infected needles as well as breast milk (2009, NIAID). The reason it is really unlikely that a person should contract this virus by skin contact, is because the way HIV invades a person's system (2009, NIAID). The virus itself has special markers on its plasma membrane called "CD Markers" that locate specific cells within a person's body that target specific cells such as helper-T Cells and Microphages (2012, Phelan). The HIV virus cannot invade cells that it cannot latch on to, so a handshake with a person who has HIV will not transfer the disease because skin cells do not have the appropriate receptors that the virus can attack. When the HIV cells find the specific cell it targets, they attach themselves to its surface and then releases its DNA proteins into the cell. The virus's DNA then take over the host cell's DNA and commands it to create copies of the HIV virus. The cell produces viral RNA which creates viral proteins that migrate to the cell edge and form an undeveloped HIV virus which then is expelled from the cell and matures into a new copy of the HIV virus.
In some rare cases, some people possess a gene that blocks and prevents HIV. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, some people are born with a rare mutated gene that inactivates the "CCr5" gene, which is crucial for the HIV virus to infiltrate immune system cells. Without this gene activated, the HIV cannot infect the person. Some researchers believe that this rare gene came about as a mutation in Europe during the era in which of bubonic plague came about (2...

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.... Rapid H.I.V. Home Test Wins Federal Approval. The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/health/oraquick-at-home-hiv-test-wins-fda- approval.html

NIAID. (2009, March 25). Hiv risk factors. Retrieved March 9, 2014 from http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/Understanding/Pages/riskFactors.aspx

Phelan, J. (2012). What is Life? A guide to Biology. New York: Freeman.

Pollack, A., & Mcneil, D. (2013, March 3). In Medical First, a Baby With H.I.V. Is Deemed Cured. The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors- say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Winslow, R., & McKay, B. (2014, March 5). Researchers See Signs of HIV Resistance in Gene Therapy. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 11, 2014, from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100

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