Facts on HIV

As a microbiologist it pains me when people talk umm...rubbish about HIV. I have encountered similar situations when it comes to other perilous organisms like the rabies virus. I have seen educated mothers telling their children not to 'look' at dogs because they have rabies.How on earth do you combat such stupidity? I do not expect everyone to know everything about infections and microorganisms, but don't these people ever think to refer or verify before they confidently talk nonsense?!

These are our so called educated masses. They have access to literature and one hopes a reasonable amount of common sense. Lately rumors have spread that HIV can be transmitted by eating pani puri!! There is something wrong with the way people think in this country. When I was doing my masters in KMC, we did HIV testing on a regular basis and also took up counseling the masses about it. We would show people pictures, graphic ones if possible, so that they would understand. We would have qualified doctors laboring over HIV for hours on end clearing misconceptions and paranoia. Yet,I have seen people adamantly sticking to their senseless beliefs. In so many instances I've seen people retaliate with answers like "doc,we understand what you are saying but believe me HIV spread via towels.....Muniappa,next door got it that way". No matter how hard we tried to clear the poor man's notions, Muniappa's mode of infection always won. My frustration is that you can do wonders when it comes to spreading awareness, you can come up with slogans and pictures to drive the nail in but when some people take leave of their senses and stubbornly stick to their bizzare beliefs, its close to impossible to break that wall.

These are some points everyone should know about HIV :

* Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) requires ONLY Blood or Semen as it's medium to transmit from one body to another.

* HIV cannot transmit through Saliva (mucous) i.e. even if a HIV-infected patient coughs or smooches and another person is exposed to his sputum (cough) or saliva, the virus still cannot transmit because the concentration of virus particles in sputum is almost NIL & exposure to air anyway kills the virus in fraction of seconds.

* In case the HIV-infected person gets an injury and he is bleeding, the virus can transmit to another person only if the other person has a cut/wound in his body & that too when blood from both persons comes in contact with each other (this is also very very rare unless bleeding is very high) and not otherwise.

* HIV can never survive in any other liquid medium other than blood or semen (& please for God's sake ... never in Pani Puri wala pani).

* Even if one drinks an HIV infected blood (or semen) of someone (ingestion through Gastro Intestinal track), the virus cannot survive in the acidic pH of the stomach. Highest extent of acidity is 0 (practically impossible) so imagine 1 as the pH which is in our stomach. (This pH can burn your own fingers in less than a second if you dip them in that acid).

*Exposure of less than 1 second in AIR KILLS the HIV virus (hence the story of needle pricks in cinema theatres is complete crap). Even if blood from a wound (of infected person) dries up (blood clot), the virus dies and cannot infect anyone else.

* HIV transmission is ONLY an INFECTION i.e. entrance of virus in one's body. It DOES NOT MEAN AIDS.

* An HIV-infected person (after entrance of virus) can progress to a condition of AIDS only after 8 to 10 YEARS .It is not the HIV (virus) that kills a human ..... the virus attacks immune cells (cells that fight against foreign pathogens/antigens) and hence a person's ability to fight against infections & diseases slowly diminishes and the person ultimately dies of a disease which could be as simple as TB.

* Most importantly, HIV is no longer dreadful disease ... it is "CHRONIC MANAGEABLE DISEASE" just like Diabetes or Hypertension.If there is anything you need to know about, it is that prevention of HIV is by avoiding unsafe sex, unsafe blood transfusion (check before taking) / Blood donation (use sterilized needles only) and any blood contact during an accident or where the amount of bleeding is very high.HIV also spreads from the mother to the fetus.