Some 41% of the Dutch think hiv can be passed on by tongue kissing and 25% would not eat in a restaurant where the cook was hiv positive, according to a TNS Nipo poll carried out for the national Aids fund.

A further 15% think contact sports where participants work up a lot of sweat are also a risk factor.
Aids fund director Ton Coenen told the Volkskrant there are still many misconceptions about hiv. ‘This means people are more scared than they need to be,’ he said. For example, there is not enough of the hiv virus in saliva to infect someone, he told the paper.
The report coincides with a new campaign to end the social isolation of many hiv sufferers. Some one in three keep their situation secret from friends and family, earlier Aids fund research shows.