How safe is kissing now is probably a million dollar question.
With new discoveries indicating that the HIV virus can be contained in saliva pigments around one’s gums, the question above becomes even more difficult to answer.
The discovery has generally been accepted worldwide including Zambia and to that effect, HIV testing is no longer exclusively done by testing blood samples.
While addressing the media on 28th July 2018, health minister, Dr Chitalu Chilufya, acknowledged the fact that since HIV could be contained in Saliva pigments, then there was a chance it could be transmitted through saliva.
Chilufya was careful not to point out vividly that HIV could be transmitted through saliva, after all, there is no scientific justification to back that up.
New technologies have actually been discovered to help test HIV virus by testing saliva pigments and one of them is the new Self HIV Testing kit.
So, does it mean kissing is now a health hazard?
Well, not so far according to the information available at the Ministry of Health and other global researchers such as World Health Organization (WHO).
Minister of Health Dr. Chitalu Chilufya said, “In as much as it is true that the HIV virus lives in saliva pigments, we can’t rush to conclude that activities such as kissing would directly result into contracting the disease.”
Good news for young couples, not so? for now it seems, but what if it is discovered later on that the disease can actually be transmitted through kissing too? Well, we hope not.
Self HIV Testing, just how good is it?
The coming in of the new HIV testing kit was tipped to motivate many people to get tested.
Actually, the Ministry of Health recorded a 5% increment in the number of people who got tested in the first year it was implemented in 2016.
It was also argued that people would do it without having to worry about being stigmatized, they would have to do it in their home after all.
However, not everything is quite as good as earlier anticipated and surely there are a few concerns around it.
Talking to Hamattan Kachabe, a student at the University of Zambia, after carrying out his self HIV test spoke volumes. He complained over lack of counselors when one is still waiting for results.
“You see testing is sensitive and you need a counselor whilst you wait for results otherwise you can die of depression,” he said.
Hamatan added that in as much as the development must be appreciated, it leaves much more to be desired.
Well, his concerns are neither representative of what everyone thinks nor are they void, but one thing factual about it is that there is some sense in what the young student observed.
Saliva testing sums it all
Whether Dr. Chilufya agrees or not, there seems to be a potential danger in kissing, after all, he is an advocate of self-testing using saliva, one wonders how the same saliva can’t transmit the virus during kissing.
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Credits
Photographers; Kutasha Mulenga, Margaret Malilo
Writer; Kachabe Hamattan
Editing; Misheck M. Chipenzi
Text Layout; Virginia Chilongo, Faith Hamayanda
Source; Hannah Kaniini
Tulande 
Good story, give us more and do an in-depth research on whether kissing is really an exposing factor to HIV.
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It has never crossed my mind like that, but now reading the above I am intrigued by the thought of the possibilities.
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Insightful. But isn’t counseling done before one is given self testing kit? Am sure the kit can’t be given before undergoing some counseling.
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