JEFFERSON CITY • As an HIV-positive Missouri resident, Latrischa Miles says she dares not spit during her runs in Kansas City.

Under current state laws, originally drafted in the ’80s as the HIV/AIDS epidemic spread, Missourians can be prosecuted for the transmission of HIV. The outdated language includes the exchange of saliva through spitting and biting as a way the disease can be transferred.

While these transmission methods have been scientifically disproved in the decades since, state law has remained the same, with many being prosecuted using the unsound standards.

“I’ve lived in the shadows of these criminal laws,” Miles said. “I know that a jilted lover or angry neighbor could maliciously report to police authorities that I had exposed them to HIV whether there is any truth in it or not, and I could be arrested with no protections under the law.”