HIV semen

As we all know, AIDS is a contagious disease and currently cannot be cured by treatment. It is difficult for AIDS patients to have children because the semen of AIDS patients is also one of the routes of transmission. This is because the virus is present in the semen. There are also tests that show that it is possible to separate healthy sperm from the semen of AIDS patients and then fertilize them, but there is also the possibility of failure.

1. HIV content in male semen

This depends on the stage of the AIDS patient and how he came into contact with the AIDS patient's semen. Many situations will affect the HIV virus content in male semen. For example, the HIV virus content in semen is relatively high in the early and late stages of AIDS infection, while the HIV virus content in semen during the latent period is relatively low.

There are five essential factors for HIV infection:

1.1. The other party has a virus.

1.2. The amount of virus is huge.

1.3. You have wounds.

1.4. Repeated contact between wound surface and viral body fluids.

1.5. The virus stays on the wound for a long time.

There are many factors that affect the HIV content in male semen, the most critical of which is the early stage of infection, also known as the window period. During this period, the amount of HIV virus in male semen is dozens of times higher than in other periods, and the infectiousness can increase by 200 times. The amount of HIV virus in semen and its infectiousness increase exponentially.

2. Under what circumstances is the HIV content in male semen the highest?

Data show that the risk of HIV infection from a man to a woman during vaginal intercourse is 1/300-1/500; during anal intercourse, the risk of HIV infection for the passive partner is several times higher than that of heterosexual contact. In fact, many situations increase the risk of HIV infection through sexual intercourse, such as other STDs, genital ulcers or damage, and high levels of HIV in semen, which can accelerate the sexual transmission of HIV.

3. HIV structure

The HIV virus is spherical in structure, and its genetic material is single-stranded RNA. There is a protective protein coat outside the RNA, and outside the coat is an envelope composed of lipids, proteins and sugars. The HIV virus structure contains reverse transcriptase, which uses RNA as a template to synthesize DNA. When the HIV virus infects a cell, the viral envelope and coat are removed. Under the action of reverse transcriptase, the single-stranded RNA is used as a template to form an RNA-DNA hybrid molecule, and the DNA in the RNA-DNA hybrid molecule is used as a template to form a DNA chain, and finally this chain is used as a template to form a double-stranded DNA molecule. This DNA molecule is integrated into the DNA of the host cell, and progeny viruses are produced from the integrated viral DNA.

Can cleaning male semen prevent AIDS?

Experts first extracted sperm from infected semen, separated the virus, and then used a very sensitive HIV test method to verify whether the sperm contained the virus before combining the sperm with the egg. The patient's spouse is currently six months pregnant, and two tests showed that the fetus was not infected with HIV.

This technology can reduce the risk of HIV infection, but the price is expensive, the first course of treatment needs to pay 1,300 pounds, and each subsequent insemination also needs to pay 900 pounds. Despite this, there are still 8 couples who have recently requested this "treatment".

Experts are also studying the use of the same technology to prevent men with hepatitis B and C from passing the virus to their offspring.