Dr.\u00a0Purandare explains with great detail\u00a0steps you need to take while\u00a0saving a bleeding person on road, HIV transmission modes and much more… Read on…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Team MyOPD:\u00a0How has been your experience treating HIV+ patients? Is the condition in India changing with respect to acceptance within the family about the positive status?<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Purandare:<\/strong>\u00a0I have been into HIV\/AIDS practice since past 12 years now. I began my practice in an\u00a0era when effective anti HIV drugs (called anti retroviral drugs) were very costly; the treatment of\u00a0HIV was out of reach of common man. We only had Septran, a very basic antibiotic at our hand\u00a0to treat these patients. People used to shy away with the name of HIV and the disease had a lot of\u00a0stigma in the society. Even doctors used to reject HIV positive patients for treatment and they\u00a0were mostly treated by junior or less experienced doctors. In the hospitals, HIV positive patients\u00a0faced discrimination; they used to get beds which are in the corner; in non-airy, poorly lit,\u00a0unclean\u00a0areas. If a female patient with HIV infection got admitted, the relatives used to run away\u00a0after admission leaving the patient at the mercy of hospital staff, without any food or\u00a0medications.<\/p>\n Over past 10-15 years, the scenario has gradually changed. The anti retroviral drugs are\u00a0now available at reasonable price, even a rickshaw-wala now can easily afford it. The safety\u00a0profile of drugs has improved and so is their efficacy.\u00a0The knowledge of treatment of HIV\u00a0infection is now widespread and even a rural doctor can treat these patients in his own set up.\u00a0HIV positive people are living longer, leading a healthy life and earning for their families.\u00a0Social\u00a0outlook is changing. HIV positive people have come together, and they have formed many self\u00a0help groups and non-governmental organizations (NGO\u2019s). The acceptance of HIV positive\u00a0status of a person in his own family is growing. What was most surprising to me is that I found\u00a0some HIV negative persons voluntarily coming forward to marry their HIV positive partners,\u00a0whom they loved,\u00a0in recent years<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Team MyOPD:\u00a0We know from TV ads that HIV has just 3 modes of transmission. However, there are\u00a0rumors\u00a0being circulated about infection from fast food outlets with food being prepared by\u00a0an infected person who has a cut on his finger. Can you shed some light on this?<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Purandare:<\/strong> There are only four known modes\u00a0of transmission:<\/p>\n It is unlikely that HIV transmission will occur through fast food outlets with food being\u00a0prepared by an infected person who has a cut on his finger or via soft drinks in which infected\u00a0blood is mixed by a worker. I believe such news are spread just to create panic and confusion\u00a0and should never be believed.<\/p>\n Team MyOPD:\u00a0Is there a minimum blood or fluid criteria required for the transmission to happen, like say 2ml of infected blood needs to go in blood stream for the non infected patient to turn HIV+?<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Purandare:<\/strong>\u00a0There is no defined quantity of blood which is minimum or required for HIV\u00a0transmission to occur. The virus is microscopic, 100 nanometers in size and theoretically a single\u00a0virus particle can effect transmission.<\/p>\n What is known is that there are certain factors associated\u00a0with increased risk of transmission. Team MyOPD:\u00a0How long does this virus stay alive outside the body? Is there any quantifiable measure?<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Purandare:<\/strong>\u00a0HIV virus can not stay alive for a long time outside human body. When the blood or\u00a0infected fluid dries up, the virus is likely to die. Some experts suggest that the virus can remain\u00a0alive only up to a few minutes in dried secretion. The virus is easily killed by high temperatures\u00a0or simple disinfectants such as bleaching powder, sodium hypochlorite and glutaraldehyde. The\u00a0virus has an outside shell made up of phospholipids. The phospholipids are easily soluble in soap\u00a0solution. So a simple measure such as thorough hand washing with soap and water can kill the\u00a0virus on the hand by dissolving its shell<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Team \u00a0MyOPD:\u00a0You see a road accident and a bleeding person. What safety measure should be adopted by the person who is offering help?<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Purandare:<\/strong>\u00a0It has been proven beyond doubt that offering help\u00a0and first aid to a bleeding person in the first hour of accident (THE GOLDEN HOUR), saves\u00a0lives. When we are faced with such a situation, we need to offer help and provide medical aid to\u00a0the bleeding person without second thoughts. When there is likely exposure the blood or blood-stained clothes or body areas, rubber gloves should be used. Sometimes gloves may not be\u00a0available, and then clean cloth can be used as a barrier. If hands get contaminated with blood\u00a0somehow<\/strong>, then hand washing with plenty of soap and water should be done thoroughly after\u00a0exposure as soon as possible<\/span>.<\/p>\n Team MyOPD:\u00a0What would be your advice to patients who are dealing with this condition?<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Purandare:<\/strong>\u00a0My advice for HIV infected individuals will be to seek medical care as soon as they know\u00a0their diagnosis. There is no point in delaying the treatment as it brings only suffering. Any good\u00a0doctor, reasonably trained in HIV care will be able to provide them appropriate care while\u00a0maintaining their right of confidentiality. The infected person needs to take antiretroviral\u00a0drugs\u00a0extremely regularly\u00a0lifelong under supervision of their doctor and intermittent testing for\u00a0treatment response is required. Anti retroviral drugs are available through government program\u00a0free of cost and also in private health sector at reasonable costs. It is important that they disclose\u00a0their HIV status to their sexual partners and use barrier contraceptives i.e. condoms at every intercourse.\u00a0HIV\u00a0positive pregnant patients must remember that very effective treatment is available both for\u00a0themselves and the newborn baby so that mother to child transmission can be prevented<\/strong>. Breast\u00a0milk can contain HIV virus and breast feeding can increase the risk of mother to child\u00a0transmission. Infected persons should avoid blood or organ donation, needle sharing and sharing\u00a0of shaving equipment\u00a0or toothbrush<\/span>. I also plead them not to fall prey to any advertisements\u00a0claiming cure of HIV by ayurvedic or unani or any novel form of treatment. As of now, HIV\u00a0infection can not be cured but can be well controlled (like diabetes) with currently available anti\u00a0retroviral drugs.<\/p>\n Team MyOPD:\u00a0What would be your advice to relatives of these patients? Any extra precautions that they should take at home?<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Purandare:<\/strong>\u00a0My advice to the relatives of HIV infected individuals will be to provide them emotional\u00a0and social support. These individuals are fighting with a difficult disease and need our help.\u00a0They should avoid any discrimination during day to day contact with HIV positive persons.\u00a0There is no need to keep their beds, utensils or clothes separately. HIV is not present in sweat,\u00a0saliva, tears, urine or stools unless these secretions are visibly contaminated with blood. HIV is\u00a0present in blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk<\/span>. Exposure to these bodily fluids of\u00a0infected individuals should be avoided. HIV is not spread by casual contact, eating or sharing\u00a0food with infected persons or through mosquito or bed bug bites<\/strong>. Relatives should\u00a0positively\u00a0pursue the patients to takes drugs regularly and follow up with their doctors. HIV\u00a0infected people have right to live, receive medical care and maintain their dignity. It is our\u00a0collective responsibility to be sensitive to their needs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Team MyOPD: Thank you Dr. Purandare for your time and detailed discussion. (Emphasis i.e. bold and underlined done by Team MyOPD to highlight important points in the article)<\/em><\/p>\n The contents in this article are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License<\/a>. Attribution to MyOPD is required before using this content. Check the license for more details.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n 1st December is\u00a0World AIDS\u00a0Day On this occasion, Team MyOPD\u00a0thought of clearing some misconceptions and providing additional information by talking to Dr. Bharat Purandare who specializes in the field of HIV care. Dr.\u00a0Purandare explains with great detail\u00a0steps you need to take while\u00a0saving a bleeding person on road, HIV transmission modes and much more… Read on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[17,18,16],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boosterdose","tag-aidsawareness","tag-hiv","tag-worldaidsday"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dr-Bharat\"](\"https:\/\/www.myopd.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Dr-Bharat-300x249.png\")
<\/a>\n
\nThe transmission risk increases when a person gets exposed\u00a0to a large quantity of blood or infected fluid (either a splash of blood\/bloody fluid or a bold prick\u00a0with a hollow bore needle),\u00a0particularly when the source patient is untreated or having an\u00a0advanced stage of HIV infection.\u00a0As regards the risk of sexual transmission, the risk of\u00a0transmission is higher when an individual performs unprotected receptive anal or vaginal\u00a0intercourse or when active genital ulceration or infection is present at the time of sex, or when\u00a0an individual has multiple sexual partners.<\/p>\nAbout MyOPD:<\/strong> MyOPD is a Software for Doctors in India. You are always welcome to see ifMyOPD satisfies your requirement. You can download the software directly from \r\nhttp:\/\/www.myopd.in\/product-pricing.php<\/a> and try it out. Drop a mail to support@myopd.in<\/a>and we will be happy to help.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"