HIV has been found in saliva and tears in very low quantities from AIDS patients, but this does not necessarily mean it is transmitted by those body fluids. Insect bites have shown no evidence either. On the other hand, it has been proven that HIV is transmitted when body fluid of infected person enters the bloodstream of a person without HIV and is found in semen, blood, vaginal secretions, and human breast milk. There are five good ways to prevent infection of this very deadly disease: 1.Do not have sex with infected person, multiple partners or drug users. 2.Do not use intravenous drugs or share needles. 3.If infected do not exchange body fluids or donate blood, plasma, semen or body organs.4.HIV women should be counseled before becoming pregnant. 5.HIV women should not breast feed their infants.HISTORY/SURVEILLANCEHIV was first identified in the United States in 1981, after the New York Times reported an outbreak of a rare form of cancer in young gay men in New York and California, first referred to as "gay cancer" but medically known as Kaposi Sacoma. About a year later, the CDC linked the illness to blood and coins the term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). As the number of deaths increased, medical experts scrambled to find a cause and more importantly a cure. In 1984, Institut Pasteur of France discovered what they called the HIV virus, but it wasn't until a year later that a US scientist, Dr. Robert Gallo, confirmed that HIV was the cause of AIDS. Population based surveillance has been used to track the progression of the HIV epidemic from the initial case report of opportunistic illnesses caused by a then unknown agent to a few large cities to the reporting of 711,344 AIDS cases nationwide through June 30, 1999. Since 1985, many states have implemented HIV case reporting as part of their comprehensive HIV/AIDS surveillance programs. As of November 1, 1999, a total of 34 states and the Virgin Islands con...
