Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.Please help me! My son has just told me that his doctor has told him that he has HIV (Aids). Can he still live with me, and if he can WHAT PRECAUTION(S) SHOULD I TAKE????? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP AND TIME.
Mark H. Katz, M.D.
Regional HIV/AIDS Physician Coordinator
Kaiser Permanente of Southern California
HIV is not spread through casual contact. See the enclosed CDC guidelines on transmission, www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/transmission.htm. It will tell you what precautions you need to take. Just remember, the only way your son could transmit HIV would be for his blood or semen to come in virtually immediately direct contact with a break in the skin or mucous membranes of the recipient. You should wear gloves if caring for any wound on him.
Also, know there has been only one case of household transmission ever reported in the U.S.--and it was in the first years of the epidemic, more than 23 years ago, when a caring mother took care of her son with bloody diarrhea. And these were the days before we knew to advise people to wear gloves for such.
You have nothing to worry about. And your son is lucky to have a mother to care him!
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