There are many questions regarding safe s*x and the spread of STD, an infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. Confusion often arises around how exactly AIDS spreads, as it is often generalized to “bodily fluids.” However, this categorization is too broad when considering hickey and the risks for HIV. You cannot contract it from the exchange of saliva through kissing or giving or receiving hickey. Hickeys, or “love bites,” are bruises and do not break the skin, so there is not access to the bloodstream. Even if the skin were to break, HIV could not spread through saliva. To be infected with HIV, already infected blood, semen, or vaginal secretions must enter your body.
Before we talk about hickeys and the risks for AIDS, let’s remove some misconceptions about each and define them. There is also a similar misconception about Hickey and cancer too.
Contents
What is Hickey
A Hickey, also known as a kiss mark or love bite, is a bruise or bruise like mark caused by the kissing or sucking of the skin, usually on the neck or arm.It is initially red in color, due to broken blood vessels beneath the skin. It will later turn purple or dark brown as it heals.
What is AIDS
HIV(human immunodeficiency virus) causes HIV infection and AIDS(acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). AIDS is a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. Read more about the AIDS on Wikipedia.
Are Hickeys And AIDS Connected?
When someone is giving a hickey, they cause the capillaries just beneath the surface to rupture, letting blood seep out into the surrounding tissue. So, hickeys, like bruises, are broken blood vessels just under the surface of the skin that blood has come out of. Usually, while receiving the hickey, you would only be exposed to the saliva, and since there are no known cases of HIV being spread through saliva, there is an extremely small risk for HIV.
Besides, since your skin is not usually broken when someone is giving you a hickey, AIDSwould normally not have access to your bloodstream. But even if the skin were to be broken, this is still a little risk, since there have been no cases of transmission through saliva, since saliva has enzymes that inhibit HIV, among many other things. If you are the one that is receiving the hickey, you are safe as much as you can be from AIDS infection.
SO, Is it 100% Safe?
To connect hickeys and the risks for HIV transmission the following must be present:
- Body fluid with high levels of HIV
- Direct access for the virus to enter the bloodstream
Body fluid with high levels of STD is blood, and as we have said before, there are broken blood vessels beneath the skin due to suckling. The main thing to note here is that blood is beneath the skin and not in contact with another person. So, regarding hickeys and the risks for HIV, if you are giving someone a hickey, there would only be a risk if you broke their skin, and they bled into your mouth. Even then, the viral load must be high enough to be detectable for it to be a chance of infection, but still, the risk is there, and this situation should be avoided if possible. If their blood did not get into your mouth, you would not be in danger by giving them a hickey.
While activities, like kissing and giving hickeys, are considered “no risk” activities, you should be aware of those activities that do no increase your chances of contracting and transmitting HIV. The virus cannot spread through the air, from saliva, or from other regular actions like touching shaking hands, or dancing. Infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluids directly entering the body transmit HIV. Be aware of these causes and high-risk factors to practice safe s*x and avoid AIDS.
The Bottom Line
To summarize as far as hickeys and the risks for STD are concerned, the person receiving the hickey is never at risk of contracting infection, due to no way of fluids infected with AIDS entering his blood system. While it’s highly unlikely that a person giving the Hickey can get infected, the risk is there, and one should be careful not to break the skin and allow infected blood enter the bloodstream. Check How to get rid of hickey or hide hickey, also keep these hicky excuses in mind because they can save you.
