Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
12 Diseases That Can Spread Through Kissing
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Images
Young couple in denim shirts shares a kiss outdoors at sunset, with soft sunlight and a blurred urban background.
Quick Facts
Related Topics:
kiss
See all related content
Britannica AI Icon

Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Young couple in denim shirts shares a kiss outdoors at sunset, with soft sunlight and a blurred urban background.
Can a kiss spread a disease? By allowing the exchange of saliva, a deep kiss—one with considerable tongue involvement—can serve to transmit some pathogens.

12 Diseases That Can Spread Through Kissing

Written by
Manjishtha Bhattacharyya
Manjishtha Bhattacharyya is an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. She holds a PhD in zoology from Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, and has more than seven years of experience in science communication...
Manjishtha Bhattacharyya
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

For most people, a kiss is a familiar gesture of affection, greeting, or intimacy. But, because kissing often involves close contact and the exchange of saliva, it can also provide a route for certain infectious diseases to spread from one person to another. The risk varies widely depending on the disease, the mode of transmission, and individual circumstances, and many infections associated with kissing are also spread through other forms of close contact. The 12 diseases (or the pathogens responsible for the diseases) listed below are among those that can be transmitted during lip-to-lip contact, particularly through the associated saliva exchange during deep kissing.

Risk of Contracting STDs from Kissing

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), such as syphilis and AIDS, are rarely contracted from kissing an infected person. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) occurs infrequently in infected persons’ saliva. The syphilis-causing bacterium, on the other hand, can be transferred through kissing only via direct contact with active syphilis sores (chancres) in the mouth. The jury is still out on whether human papillomavirus (HPV) spreads through deep kissing.

Manjishtha Bhattacharyya