Let There be Light...

HIV Knowledge
Its good to be well informed about HIV. There was a story on junk somedays back where it is said that a boy got infected by HIV virus byeating pani-puri. And there have also been rumors where people are affected by the HIV virus when they got pricked by an HIV infected needle in theaters which is rubbish.So read along!

I have seen this below mentioned mail floating across group email & I feel its my moral responsibility to correct all misconceptionsregarding HIV /AIDS.I asked my friend mayank who is serving as Brand Manager (Product Manager) handling anti HIV/AIDS portfolio (called asAntiretroviral Drugs) in Ranbaxy to help me to spread awareness about aids and clear the misconceptions about it.This what he has to say.
1) HIV (virus) requires ONLY Blood or Semen as medium to transmit from one body to another.

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

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

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

5) Even if one drinks an HIV infected blood (or semen) of someone (ingest through Gastro Intestinal track), the virus can not survive intheacidic pH of stomach. Highest extent of acidity is 0 (practically not possible) so imagine 1 as pH which is in our stomach. (This pH can burn your own finger in less than a second if you dip in that acid).

6) Exposure of less than 1 second in AIR KILLS the HIV virus( hence story of needle pricks in Cinema theatres is a crap). Even if bloodfrom a wound (of infected person) dries up (blood clot), the virus dies and can not infect anyone else.

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

8) An HIV-infected person (after entrance of virus) can progress to a condition of AIDS only after 8 to 10 YEARS (not in 15 days as in thePani Puri story).

9) It is not HIV (virus) that kills a human.....the virus attacks immune cells (cells that fight against foreign pathogens/antigens) andhence a person's ability to fight against infections & diseases slowly diminishes and person ultimately dies of a disease which could be assimple as TB.

10) Most importantly, HIV is no longer a dreadful disease ... it is "*CHRONIC MANAGEABLE DISEASE*" just like Diabetes or Hypertension.

11) If there is anything you need to be careful from to prevent HIV is Unsafe sex, Blood transfusion (check before taking) /Blood donation(use sterilized needles only) and any blood contact during an accident or so where amount of bleeding is very high.

PLZ O PLZ spread this message to avoid rumors and to educate people