Apr 11
3
Can Your Semen Be “Washed” of HIV?
I read the most interesting, and definitely heartening, article about couples who want to conceive a child, where the male in the couple has the HIV virus. Of course, the worry is that the man’s semen will pass the HIV virus on to the poor little baby, who doesn’t even have the defenses that an adult has to fight the disease off.
Off course, if a man unkowingly has the AIDS virus, there is no way to prevent this from happening. However, scientists, in their infinite wisdom and craftiness, have found a way that they can cleanse an infected man’s semen of the HIV virus, thereby making it sure that the baby will not have the disease transmitted to it.
Very interesting stuff, huh? Bet you didn’t see that type of technology coming in your lifetime, right!? Apparently, they have come up with a way where they can strip out the disease from the semen, still leaving the ability of the semen to impregnate the female intact.
Essentially, they are sanitizing the semen of the virus before it is used to fertilize the female egg which will eventually become a gamete.
The interesting thing is that the samples (before they became babies) were tested, and only a few tested positive for the HIV virus. However, none of the babies in the study who resulted from fertilization with the washed sperm, had the HIV virus.
In conclusion, the possibility is there that these babies conceived with the washed semen could still get the HIV virus passed on to them, but the possibility is very remoted and unlikely.
