The Center for Disease Control reported on Thursday a rare case of a woman in Texas contracting HIV through sexual contact with another woman. The couple told the CDC that they had unprotected sex regularly and shared sex toys. According to the CDC, at times, the contact was “rough to the point of inducing bleeding in either woman.” They also had sex during menstruation.
This is the first confirmed case of a monogamous lesbian couple contracting HIV from one another.
Though HIV can pass through blood, such infections occurring among lesbian couples is rare unless linked to other risk behaviors such as heterosexual sex during the same time period or use of intravenous drugs.
According to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the 46-year-old woman newly diagnosed with HIV “had a virus virtually identical to that of her female partner, who was diagnosed previously with HIV and who had stopped receiving antiretroviral treatment in 2010.”
The report said, “In this case, other risk factors for HIV transmission were not reported by the newly infected woman, and the viruses infecting the two women were virtually identical.”
The woman now newly diagnosed with HIV did not report any other commonly known risk factors like using intravenous drugs or tattooing, transfusions or transplants. She used to supplement her income by selling plasma, and tested negative for HIV in March 2012.
About ten days after, in April, she attended an emergency room with complaints like sore throat, fever, decreased appetite, vomiting and other syndromes. She again tested negative for HIV. However, when she again tried to sell plasma about 18 days later, she tested positive, and further testing confirmed the presence of HIV.
The woman told CDC officials that her 43-year-old sexual partner was the only sexual partner she had over the last six months before testing positive for HIV.