MUC7 and infection: Since Habte et al. [2] did not test crude saliva from HIV positive individuals and focussed only the salivary mucins MUC5B and MUC7 purified from a pool of HIV positive saliva [3], our findings raise new questions, encouraging us to design future studies that will take into account the treatment status of patients, the extent of the infection in relation to the CD4 counts and a wider genetic study of mucins in a population in this region.