STD Testing Info

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Charla Muller couldn’t think of what to give her husband for his 40th birthday. It was a special birthday, but nothing she came up with seemed particularly creative.

Then she had a flash of insight. As her gift, she promised her husband they would have sex every day for a year. 365 days of sex.

“This is something no one else would give him,” said Muller in an interview. “It didn’t cost a lot of money, it was highly memorable. It met all the criteria for a really great gift.”

At first he was delighted. Then he figured she wouldn’t follow through. But when it became clear that she was serious, off they went, having sex almost every day for a year.

The experience is chronicled in Muller’s book, “365 Nights.” Coincidentally, the book is being released at nearly the same time as another one with the same subject matter. “Just Do It,” by Douglas Brown, tells the story of Brown and his wife and their pledge to have sex 101 days in a row.

Both books seem to have hit a nerve and are selling well, and the couples are being adopted as media darlings and hitting the talk show circuit.

Psychotherapist Dr. Barton Goldsmith, author of “Emotional Fitness for Couples,” said to reporters that the economic situation could be part of the reason for the books’ popularity.

“Recession is good for relationships,” said Dr. Goldsmith. “People don’t want to go out so they can cocoon, and sex can be fun for many couples. It beats the hell out of Monopoly. Reclaiming the spark of romance is always a timely subject.”

While the Mullers embarked on their year of love as a birthday gift, the Browns decided to “just do it” because they were in the doldrums after having moved from Baltimore to Colorado.

Missing friends, family, and neighborhood, the couple thought up their idea as a way to get them out of their depression. “We were just kind of bummed out when Annie handed me this idea, and I said that it might be kind of fun and put some spark back in our lives,” said “Just Do It” author Douglas Brown. “Baltimore was the kind of place that generated its own spark. We wanted to see if we could do the same in what we began to call our sensory-deprivation chamber.”

That doesn’t say much for Stapleton, Colorado, where they had moved to.

Both books chronicle the challenges of sex every single day, whether they felt like it or not. Sick? Gotta have sex anyway. Mad? Too bad, time to have sex. Kids getting in the way? Hire a babysitter and go to it.

There were definitely obstacles. One day Doug Brown experience a bout of vertigo (dizziness and disorientation) and his wife was not going to take no for an answer. “I’m not a quitter,” she told reporters. “The night he had vertigo, I said, ‘I’m sorry guy, but you’ve got to keep going.’”

For her part, Charla Muller says she hit a wall around month 10, and started referring to the “gift” as “my stupid idea,” and “my cross to bear.” But the Mullers, too, kept going, missing only a few days per month as husband Brad traveled for work. “When he was traveling, we tried to make up for it,” said Charla.

Both books are selling very well, though “Just Do It” is doing somewhat better on bestseller lists, some say because the details of the 101-day sexathon are more graphic, and the reader feels like he or she “is part of a threesome.”

Think you could do it? It might not solve all your problems, say psychologists and sex therapists. “There’s all sorts of reasons people lose interest in sex with their partner; disappointments, life cycles, financial issues. Just having [sex] isn’t going to resolve those.”

But for the Mullers and the Browns, they say it definitely brought them closer. “[We had] this intense closeness,” said Annie Brown of the 101-day experience. “We were so aware of wherever the other person was mentally and emotionally, and physically.”

The Browns say they didn’t have sex for a month after the 101st day, but that their frequency these days is better than it was before the experiment.

The Mullers, too, say that sex is better these days, and they’re glad for their year-long tryst. “It made it much easier to be open to the idea, more spontaneous,” says Charla Muller. “It was a really meaningful lesson.”

The British government was yesterday accused of breaking its G8 pledge to help defeat Aids when it revealed it would only marginally increase its contribution to the Global Fund for Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, promised £1bn over the next eight years to the fund, but campaigners said this fell far short of the G8 pledge to treble contributions by 2010. “This is only £125m a year. Currently the UK gives £100m a year,” said Steve Cockburn, of the Stop Aids campaign.

“It is astonishing how quickly promises become meaningless. In June the G8 promised to treble the size of the Global Fund by 2010, in order to tackle three diseases that kill 6 million people each year. Then in July, at the UN, Gordon Brown claimed moral leadership by warning the world that promises to tackle poverty and disease must be not be broken. Yet today the government has done exactly that, and sadly the effect will be felt by millions of people affected by Aids, TB and malaria across the world.”

The announcement at the labor party conference comes only two days before the start of a major Global Fund replenishment conference in Berlin, where the donor countries will meet to commit new money for drugs, prevention strategies and improvements to the health services of developing countries.

Campaigners, who include Oxfam and Action Aid as well as US groups, are concerned that the low offer from the UK will have an impact on the generosity of other European nations. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is hosting the conference and had been expected to make a substantial increase in Germany’s contribution. Beyond Europe, there are greater worries about the effect on the US. The US undertakes to provide a third of the money for the Global Fund – an amount that rises or falls according to other countries’ contributions. Campaigners – including Elton John writing in the Guardian on Saturday – had called on Britain to give £700m over the next three years.

UN AIDS today raises the bar again in a report that concludes that available resources for HIV/Aids must more than quadruple from their 2007 level if the world is to achieve the goal set by the G8 of universal access to treatment for all. Some $42.2bn (£20.9bn) will be needed by 2010, it says, rising to $54bn by 2015.

At least 100,000 HIV-positive children are to receive low-cost drugs for life, using money raised by a tax on flying.

Former US president Bill Clinton said yesterday that the new charges on airline tickets, pioneered by France, meant his Clinton Foundation HIV/Aids Initiative had the buying power to negotiate with drug companies for big discounts.

This year the foundation will receive $350m (£178m), most of it from an airline ticket tax France began collecting this summer. The government charges passengers an extra €4 for every international economy seat and €40 for first-class tickets. Britain has given $25m to the initiative, called Unitaid.

Mr Clinton said that not enough was being done for children in the developing world. “Only one in 10 children who need [treatment] to live get the drugs. That has to change.”

The foundation has been able to reduce sharply the price of anti-retroviral drugs. Mr Clinton, speaking after a visit to a new ward for children affected by Aids in New Delhi, said two Indian pharmaceutical companies, Cipla and Ranbaxy, had agreed to supply anti-retroviral drugs for children at prices as low as 16 cents (8p) a day, or $60 annually.

“India should be proud of these companies; they are saving countless lives every day,” he said. “We are negotiating for 19 products which are 47% less costly than what is available today.”

With 5.7 million HIV-positive people, India has the highest number of HIV cases in the world. The new deal would provide treatment for 10,000 children in India alone by March 2007. Mr Clinton added that the new medicines were also easier to store, transport and use than current drugs.

Mr Clinton was flanked by India’s most powerful politician, Sonia Gandhi, and the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, a testament to the networking power he still wields. Mr Douste-Blazy said that by 2008, Unitaid would have a £500m budget. “This is a global issue. We are seeing 1,900 new cases [of children infected with HIV] every day, especially in the countries of the south.”

At the last count, India had 202,000 children who were HIV positive. The country has only just woken up to the fact that Aids is killing off the future labour force.

Ms Gandhi, who has made tackling Aids one of her government’s priorities, admitted that the country had suffered from a “painful paradox”, with Indian companies supplying Aids treatments everywhere but India. “That has changed. At the moment 8% of those affected get drugs [in India]. I am confident that momentum will continue,” she said.

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Sean Sykes, 33, was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for knowingly exposing a woman to the HIV virus, after he had been previously convicted of the same crime.

Sykes, who is HIV-positive, spent five years in jail after being convicted in 1997 of infecting two women with the virus. A Missouri law passed in 1988 determined that exposing a partner to the virus without disclosing one’s HIV-positive status is a felony.

In the current case, Sykes was found guilty of exposing a woman to HIV in 2003. The woman has now tested positive.

Prosecutor Dwight Scroggins stated for the jury that Sykes had sexual contact with “numerous” women since his diagnosis, and witness testimony revealed that at least eight women had been exposed – three of whom later contracted HIV.

In a rare move, the case was closed to the public to protect the identities of the women involved.

“I think it’s fairly clear he is a very dangerous individual,” said Scroggins to reporters. “If he is not in prison, he would likely continue to spread HIV.”

Though Sykes claimed that the woman was aware of his status, he apologized. “I will admit that my behavior in the early ‘90s and up until first conviction was not appropriate,” he said. “Even though [the woman] was aware of my status, I should have seen nothing good would come as far as a sexual relationship.”

One of the two women infected by Sykes in the 1990s testified in the current case. A mother of two, the woman stated that her life had been ruined by the disease, and that she has about two years to live. “When I found out that Sean was on trial again for this, it drove me crazy. The main question is why? Why is he doing this?”

While some may argue that a life sentence for this crime is harsh, assistant prosecutor Kathleen Fisher seemed to think it fit just fine. “It’s not an immediate death sentence,” said Fisher to reporters. “But that’s what he’s done to these people, his victims.”

Legionnaire’s disease is a bacterial disease which may cause pneumonia. It gets its name from an outbreak at a state convention of the American Legion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1976, when 34 of 221 people affected died. But cases have been confirmed as far back as 1947 and it probably occurred earlier.

About 200 cases a year are reported in England, mostly as single isolated incidents, but the bug responsible has been found in ponds, hot and cold water systems, whirlpool baths and water in air conditioning plants. It particularly likes warm stagnant water.

Outbreaks tend to occur in healthy people staying in hotels or other buildings in which cooling systems or showers have been contaminated. The bug may also cause 2% of hospital cases of pneumonia.

Breathing in droplets of water is the most likely route of infection and you cannot catch it from another person. There is also little evidence anywhere in the world that it can be caught from household or car air conditioning systems.

People of all ages can be affected but men over 50 are particularly vulnerable. Early symptoms include flu-like illness, muscle aches, fatigue, headaches, dry cough and fever. Sometimes diarrhoea and confusion can develop, and the symptoms frequently lead to pneumonia. The illness is treated by antibiotics but deaths occur in 10%-15% of normally healthy individuals. The rate can be higher in some groups of patients, including older people, heavy smokers and drinkers and those who are already ill, with diseases such as cancer, kidney failure, diabetes or Aids. Irreparable damage to the lungs is the most usual cause of death.

Symptoms of Legionnaire’s, officially caused by a bug called legionella pneumophila, can take up to 10 days to develop, or, in very rare cases, three weeks. Three to six days is more normal.

Rapid diagnosis is possible through testing patients’ urine samples.

Love, hate, ignore, criticize, fascinate, study, destroy. Porn affects everyone. In all its myriad hues and nuances it seems to have something for everyone. The distribution of porn itself is another industry in itself. It could reach you through its T.V. networks, pay-per-view movies on cable and satellite, Internet Web sites, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, peep shows sex toys and good old magazines. In another decade there could possibly be some more additions to the distribution options.

So how much is the business worth? Some of the most acclaimed research agencies in the world say that the business is worth anywhere between $500 million to $10 billion. In other word, not many people have a clue as to how much it is worth in America. Worldwide figures are out of the question. One of the obvious problems faced by these agencies is that there are very few adult entertainment companies that are publicly traded. Another fascinating exercise is watching analysts take a call on the future earnings of these companies. It is like having a 3rd grade student write a 7th grade examination.

So what is legit porn and what is not? Nobody seems to know for sure. Some of the premium production houses insist that the actors wear condoms while they perform. But some of the not-so premium producers argue that since they are in the business of selling fantasy, the presence of a condom devalues the product. Another industry rule is the insistence of monthly testing for HIV. Every actor needs to show his HIV negative certificate to his co-stars before the shoot begins. This seemingly non-complicated rule is again broken time and again.

Recently there has been a hue and cry about the outsourcing of jobs in various industries to low cost providers like India and China. But the porn industry has been openly practicing outsourcing for years together. This has been done in terms of locations and actors. One of the places in the world that seems to have both in abundance is Brazil. Brazil has some of the most eye-popping locations for any kind of filmmaking. But the sun, sand and surf of Sao Paulo are perfect porn. Combine this with the fact that there are actresses in Brazil who have no hassles performing without condoms. This ensures that the overall cost of production is lowered without any compromise in the quality of the final product. They seem to conveniently forget the fact that the incidence of HIV amongst prostitutes in Brazil exceeds 90 percent.

A recent incident has shaken up the entire porn industry in America. Darren James (screen name), one of America’s veteran porn stars was shooting for a movie in Brazil. The next month he was back in America, where he was working again on a different movie. While in America, he performed extensively with an actress named Laura Rox. Not once during the shoot did Darren show Laura his HIV negative certificate. Laura who is a relative new comer in the industry did not ask for it either. Darren’s Brazilian shoot resulted in him contracting the HIV virus. He passed it on to Laura. She is 22 years old. But it doesn’t end there. Darren and Laura went on to perform with host of other actors and actresses before they were discovered with the virus. These actors and actresses went on to perform with others. The ironic part of the whole Brazilian affair is that Brazilian actors will not perform with their female counterparts without a condom. But American actors do not seem to have a problem.

For the first time ever, all the producers, both big and small have agreed to stop production for a period of 60 days. More than 60 actors and actresses have been quarantined and are repeatedly being tested. 6 have already tested positive. So is this the end of the road for the industry. Apparently not if one goes by what the stock market. analysts are saying.

AIDS virus is found in the blood of the infected person. The virus is even found in genital secretions of every infected person. This virus spreads to an uninfected person who happens to come in sexual contact where in the virus from the genital secretions of the infected person enters the tissues of the healthy person (which are at the lining of the anal area, vagina, mouth etc.), the virus enters in the body of an uninfected person if the blood (or genital secretion) of the infected person is touched by the uninfected person who has cut/punctured skin on the area that comes in contact with it or if an uninfected person uses a syringe/needle (used for any purpose such as tattooing, drugs etc.) that is used by an infected person. The virus also spreads from infected mother to newborn baby during pregnancy and even breast feeding from the infected mother can cause AIDS to her baby.

Now let us see effects that a person might experience after getting infected with HIV virus. The person who gets infected by HIV virus (knowingly or unknowingly) does not develop positive HIV antibodies immediately; in fact it takes between 2 to 4 months to turn the HIV antibodies into positive (which can be confirmed by tests such as ELISA and western blot). The starting period of infection of HIV virus is also called primary stage of HIV infection. During this period, the infected person (although this is not what all the infected patients experience, but these are general symptoms) experience a flu-like situation, the person might experience fever for several weeks. Soared throats/mouth, frequent fever, muscles and join pain, swollen lymph nodes in the neck etc. are some of the common symptoms experienced by most of the AIDS patients during their primary stage of infection. In most of the cases it is found that the above enlisted symptoms vanish as soon as the HIV virus turns positive. In this phase, the virus starts spreading (multiplying) inside the body of the infected person and as he has no symptoms of AIDS, only a test can tell whether the person is infected with HIV.

As given above, after the patient passes the primary stage of infection, the virus starts multiplying inside the host’s body. The viral reproduction depends on many factors such as physical condition, immune system etc. of the host. Every day more than some millions (or sometimes billions, the number is not same for everyone and everyday) HIV viruses are produced inside the patient’s body. AIDS is a very slow progressing disease, the procedure of HIV virus multiplying generally takes about 8 to 10 years. Once the HIV virus is reproduced up to a certain extent, a situation called AIDS develops in patient.

Now let us see, how the virus works inside the patient’s body. In biological words, every living cell has its set of functions defined, such as CD4 cells, which has a function to fight with diseases and provide make our immune system stronger. We can say that every cell is programmed to do some activity. The HIV virus; reprograms the cells of immune system and converts them in cells that produces more HIV viruses (as HIV viruses cannot reproduce more HIV viruses or cannot replicate itself just like a living cell can do). This process continues until human immune system becomes so weak that it cannot fight even a simple disease that did not need any special dose of medicine.

HIV virus attacks CD4+T cell, which is also known as T-helper cell of Immune System. HIV virus is called retroviral, because it takes help of enzyme called Reverse Transcriptase, to convert RNA strands into DNA. As a first step of infecting a healthy T-helper cell, HIV virus gets itself attached to the CD4 protein of the T-helper cell wall with the help of its gp120 Envelop protein. This works as a gate opener, the cell wall of the T-helper cell allows the viral core of the HIV virus enters into T-helper cell after gp120 protein docks itself to the CD4 protein. Further, the reverse transcriptase inside the HIV virus core, copies the virus’s RNA into DNA. This newly generated DNA is carried to the T-helper cell’s nucleus by an enzyme called viral integrase, where the virus’s DNA binds itself with the T-helper cell’s DNA. This mutated DNA then creates messenger RNA (mRNA), and in this process it uses the enzymes available in T-helper cell. The messenger RNA is just like blue-print of instruction which tell how to create new viral proteins.

This mRNA is carried out of the nucleus of the T-cell by the cell’s own enzymes. Now the virus inside the cell uses cell’s proteins to make more long chains of viral proteins and enzymes. Here the infected T-helper cell comes completely under control of the HIV virus and works as new virus producing factory. The newly created viral proteins, RNA and enzymes gather at the edge of the T-helper cell ready to get into a protective sheathe and infect another healthy T-helper cell. An enzyme which is called protease cuts the polypeptides into viral proteins. The newly created HIV virus particles then leave the infected T-helper cell and get their own protective sheathe (which again is made up of membrane of the infected T-helper cell) and head towards the other Immune System cells. This process is also called budding and about thousands of T-helper cells are infected slowly until the CD4 cell count reduces to a very low level. At certain level when the number of T-helper cells per millimeter in blood goes below a particular number, the person is considered to have developed AIDS.

America’s multibillion-dollar porn industry was in crisis last night after two of its major stars tested positive for HIV.

The news has shocked the industry, which is largely based in southern California’s San Fernando Valley. Sets and studios were closed as the news spread and actors, actresses and producers rushed to health clinics for HIV tests. The exposure of the industry’s dark side is a major blow to a film sector trying to boost its image as professional and mainstream.

Most major companies have decided to halt filming for 60 days so that anyone who starred in films with the infected performers can have health check-ups. The industry produces about 4,000 films a year, with sales estimated to be worth up to $13bn a year. The industry’s temporary closure is likely to hit the local economy hard.

‘It’s very scary,’ said Mary Carey, a porn star who ran for governor of California last year. ‘This is a wake-up call for everybody.’

Despite its seedy image of sex and exploitation, many industry figures say the US porn industry is a well-run, highly regulated business. About 1,200 performers are tested monthly for a variety of sexual diseases, including HIV, gonorrhoea and syphilis. Most production firms refuse to give work to performers who cannot produce a clean blood test taken within the last month.

There have been scares before. In 1999 a male actor tested HIV positive. A year earlier another male actor infected five women.

This time one of the infected performers is Darren James, who is believed to have contracted the disease while filming in Brazil. Afterwards he was tested for HIV and shown to be negative, but it is believed the test was conducted too soon. A subsequent test, taken after James had resumed filming in the US, proved positive. James is said to be devastated by the news.

It is believed he infected teenage Canadian porn star Lara Roxx, who had only been in the industry for three months. A further 65 performers have been identified as having had sex with either of the two actors or with someone else who did. All are now being tested.

The names of many of the actors and actresses who had sexual contact with the pair were posted on the website of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, a clinic set up by the industry. The clinic has been overwhelmed by calls from concerned performers. Clinic founder Sharon Mitchell said a news conference will be held next week to announce further details.

Mitchell – a former adult actress who went to college to earn a master’s degree in public health before opening her clinic – said it was hoped the outbreak had been dealt with. ‘This situation is considered a successful containment of two isolated HIV cases,’ she said.

It is thought James and Roxx had unprotected sex while filming; something that is becoming increasingly rare in mainstream pornographic films.

The news has thrown the industry into panic. Vivid Entertainment, the US’s largest porn company, has ceased production after initially saying its health safeguards would allow it to continue filming.

Jill Kelly, a former porn star who has become a major business figure in the adult industry, was typical of many producers who announced a temporary end to shooting. ‘It’s going to hurt some people (financially), but who cares? It’s about safety now and people’s lives,’ she said.

The crisis comes at a difficult time for the industry. Pornography, driven by the explosion of internet porn, has never been more popular. Several soap operas on US television have been based in or around the San Fernando studio scene. A current Hollywood film, The Girl Next Door, is about a retired porn star, yet the film has been billed as a teen comedy. At the same time there is a conservative backlash in the US against sexual images in the media.

The HIV scare is likely to add fuel to the fires of those who criticise the industry as immoral and unhealthy and is likely to prompt calls for tighter official regulation.

Although there are many stories/guesses of how and from where the disease originated? HIV virus is strongly believed to be originated from Africa around 1940. According to stored records, the first known patient of AIDS disease was from one of the states of Africa in 1959 whose blood was stored in order to find out the possible cause of his death. In tests carried out, the blood is confirmed to contain AIDS virus.

It is believed that the HIV virus inherits its properties from a virus SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus), which is found in monkeys. The AIDS virus also has developed its own characteristics along with those which it inherits from SIV. The SIV virus has exactly same genetic structure as that of HIV and both the viruses are transmitted same way from one host to another. The SIV virus causes AIDS in monkeys and has exactly same effects on them but it does not show any such effect on humans, whereas HIV causes AIDS in humans but not in monkeys. There are again many interesting stories/guesses/hypothesis as how the HIV virus born from the SIV virus? And how SIV virus got mixed in the human blood?

The AIDS virus was first discovered around year 1980 in the United States. A group of young gay men and also some drug users; were getting ill often, and there was no trace of the disease that they were suffering from. Most of the diseases they were falling prey of were related to the immune system. As it was not known that how much time the disease takes to surface? And how the disease spreads? The virus of AIDS found new home for itself from one man to another in the same group and also those who came in sexual contact or used the same syringe which was used by infected person. After some months, people from the group began to die, the diseases which killed all those people, were some of the common diseases which affects human at much extent if they have a damaged immune system. The T cells, also known as CD4 cells which help human body in fighting with the diseases were found damaged and there level was lowered in the patients suffering from the mysterious disease. It was outbreak of the new disease and it was identified and named AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in 1981. Doctors started research in order to find out the possible causes of the disease. First, it was not known whether AIDS was caused by viral infection or something else until two doctors Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo found the virus causing AIDS. The virus was named Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Further in 1985, a blood test was formulated which helped in identifying if a person was carrying HIV. Since 1985, this blood test is used effectively for diagnosing HIV infection. Some more tests were also found to help in diagnosing the virus and the disease using the saliva and urine.

During first few years of the detection of the new disease AIDS, all the possible reasons of spread of the disease were unknown. This helped the disease spread from one infected person to another. Back in the decade of 60’s, there were very rare chances of a disease spreading across continents or countries. It was possible only when one person traveled from one country to another and carried the disease knowingly or unknowingly. The spread of AIDS is also said to be related with the same situation. It is said that when flight attendants used to fly across the seas, they had many sex partners in almost all the countries they visited. This helped AIDS spread from Africa and allowed it to enter in America.

After few years, all the possible reasons which helps AIDS virus to spread from one person to another were revealed, such as blood transfusion from an infected person to a healthy person, sexual intercourse between infected person and a healthy person, use of syringe etc. Right from the time of outbreak of the virus, it has infected over 50 million people and killed about half of the same till today (The number of people infected and killed due to AIDS might change, as there is a huge difference in official and unofficial data). But the right cure for the virus has not yet been discovered.

The hike in the rate of sexually transmitted diseases among pregnant women has raised a situation whereby there is no protection against sexually transmitted diseases making the situation of pregnant women worst as compared to women who are not pregnant.

This is a vital fact that STDs contracted during pregnancy is quite life threatening. Most of the women are not even aware of the potential consequences of such diseases even before they get pregnant so they need to know how to protect themselves and their upcoming children from these threats.

The consequences of such sexually transmitted diseases for pregnant women can be same as for non pregnant women but these may lead to devastating effects too such as cervical cancer, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and other complications.

Very often there are no symptoms among women who are infected with these sexually transmitted diseases and even the women may not be aware that she is infected as such until she is already pregnant.

Many other complications that occur due to sexually transmitted diseases during pregnancy may include early onset of labor or premature rupture of the uterine membranes surrounding the baby and can even cause uterine infection after delivery.

It is quite common that sexually transmitted diseases are being transmitted from pregnant women to her fetus, newborn or any infant before, during or after birth. Certain STD’s such as syphilis even cross the placenta and infect the fetus that affects the fetal development. Many other sexually transmitted diseases include gonorrhea, Chlamydia, hepatitis B and genital herpes that could be transmitted from the pregnant mother to her infant through vaginal delivery. HIV positive women can transmit the virus causing AIDS to the fetus through the placenta while pregnancy or any sort of infection that could occur during the process of birth. Unique to the HIV this is a fact that transmission can occur in infants through breastfeeding by an infected mother.