HIV infects women through healthy tissue: U.S. study
Instead of infiltrating breaks in the skin, HIV appears to attack normal, healthy genital tissue, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study that offers new insight into how the AIDS virus spreads.
They said researchers had assumed the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, sought out beaks in the skin, such as a herpes sore, in order to gain access to immune system cells deeper in the tissue.
Some had even thought the normal lining of the vaginal tract offered a barrier to invasion by the virus during sexual intercourse.
"Normal skin is vulnerable," said Thomas Hope of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine said in a telephone interview...
