If a fetus never exchanges blood with its mother, how can it contract AIDS from her?


Question:
Assuming there isn't a traumatic pregnancy and the unborn contracts HIV in the womb, how does the virus get there?

Answers:
In theory a completely intact placenta will form an infection proof barrier against HIV while allowing the transfer of oxygen and nutrients. However this isn't always perfect, and sometimes there are breaks in the membrane which can expose the fetus to small amounts of the mother's blood, especially later in the pregnancy. This isn't the commonest mode of transmission, though.

Most mother to baby infections occur during birth or through breast feeding, when the baby is most likely to be exposed to the mother's blood and body fluids.

Even without preventive treatment, however, mother to baby transmission only occurs 25% of the time. With good treatment the rate is under 2 per cent.
comin' out
You do realize that there is no way for the fetus not to exchange blood with it's mother, don't you? Infected mother's can take drugs to prevent passing the virus on to the fetus, though.
maybe because it comes out of the VAGINA kinda like a penis that could catch an std!
It's part of her body. It was formed from one of her cells. The virus will be in that cell.
through the plasenta. the mum to be shares everything through the plasenta and anything the mum to be has got will affect the baby by this method
Every birth the women bleeds and also the baby is receiving fluids from the mother.
HIV is thought to be transmitted during the last weeks of pregnancy, but especially during delivery, when the baby has to pass through the vagina and is exposed to the mother's blood and fluids. Breast-feeding is also a huge risk.
That's really impossible. In order for the fetus to survive the intrauterine life he/she must develop an exchange of blood with his/her mother. It simply is the natural way of fetal growth and development. Thus making you query invalid. Aids may also be transferred through vertical transmission. When the baby is expelled in delivery, the eyes and the mouth become the traget sites for microorganism invasion. Normally, pregnant mothers with aids, are recommended to have the C-section so as to protect the baby from being delivered vaginally - which is the point for vertical transmission.
The HIV virus lives in the tissues and the fluids, including the mother's blood, in the vagina. When the baby is born the viruses are deposited in the eyes, ears, mouth - on the entire baby's body - and the baby is infected that way.
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Answering your second question would be assuming something that just doesn't happen - as far as it is known - so won't answer that one.
Of course the fetus exchanges blood with its mother! See the following diagrams of fetal circulation. The red umbilical vein goes from the mother directly to the fetal ductus venosus. Humans cannot survive without oxygen, and as the fetus cannot breathe, it gets its oxygen via mom's blood vessels. It can also get diseases and drugs this way.

http://www.beaumonthospitals.com/images/...
and
http://www.gpc.edu/~jaliff/fetalcir.gif...
Through the Placenta.
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