HIV Mythology And Its Exposure

HIV mythology and its exposure

In our country, there are already officially a million HIV-infected (despite the fact that most are not tested). At the same time, false ideas about the virus itself and the consequences of infection continue to breed myths and make the life of infected people unbearable. Vadim Pokrovsky shared his opinion about these myths with MedNovosti.

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In our country, there are already officially a million HIV-infected (despite the fact that the majority are not tested). At the same time, false ideas about the virus itself and the consequences of infection continue to breed myths and make the life of infected people unbearable. HIV mythology is very diverse and reflects all moods in society - from panic fear of infection to a frivolous attitude towards it. HIV dissidents are also making their contribution, preaching that the immune system is destroyed not by the virus, but by drugs against it. Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Federal Scientific and Methodological Center for AIDS Prevention and Control of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, shared his opinion about these myths with MedNovosti.

Just don't panic

HIV is transmitted through everyday contact, including through the toilet seat

- No, this virus is not transmitted in everyday life. Until now, not a single such case has been recorded, and even suspicions of this have never arose. In order to infect a person, HIV must enter the deepest environments of the body. And it is unlikely that this will happen when you use the toilet.

You can get HIV through kissing or oral sex

- The virus is not transmitted through saliva when kissing. There were no such cases either. But with oral sex, there were infections, although this happens much less often than with other types of sex.

The condom does not protect against the penetration of the virus

- This is not the case, the condom reliably protects against infection, and this has been proven many times. A condom does not allow liquid to pass through, and without this, by itself, the virus does not penetrate through any pores in the rubber. The only problem is that the condom can break. To prevent this from happening, you need to check the expiration date and integrity of the package and do not open it with sharp objects so as not to damage the condom. It is important that the condom is worn before contact with the partner's body and before contact ends.

An HIV-infected child should not go to kindergarten - it is dangerous for other children

- Children can really fight, bite each other. But in such situations, HIV is not transmitted, even if you touch open wounds. The fact is that with injuries, HIV is always washed out with blood, which flows out, not inward. Infection usually occurs by injection, when the infected material gets deep inside. But with open wounds, cuts, this is not observed.

A baby from an HIV positive mother will also be HIV positive

- The risk of having an HIV-infected child is less than 50%, and this is in the event that no measures are taken. And with modern methods of preventing the transmission of infection to the fetus from the mother, this probability approaches zero.

Read more: Russia is among the top three countries in the world in terms of the number of HIV cases

More than a million HIV-infected people live in Russia. “At the end of the third quarter, 1 million 87 thousand 339 Russians were registered as infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, of whom 233 thousand died,” said Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Federal Scientific and Methodological Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vadim Pokrovsky at a press conference. held at the central office of Interfax on Tuesday.

People living with HIV cannot start families and have children

- And they can, and they do it. Of course, when you get married or are getting married, it is better to know whether your partner is infected or not, and undergo an examination yourself. Not only condoms protect against infection in such a marriage, but also antiretroviral therapy, which will be taken by the HIV-infected partner. But the most reliable is if both are combined.

A number of countries recommend prophylactic antiretroviral drugs for the uninfected spouse as well. This is especially important when planning a pregnancy. There is a whole range of measures aimed at ensuring that the child is born not infected. If a woman has been infected, or contracted from her husband, then she should take antiretroviral drugs, monitor with tests whether the appointment helps.

Mosquitoes carry HIV

- This question has been asked for 30 years, but during these 30 years there has not been a single such case.

HIV is a death sentence, you can die at any time from the simplest disease

“Today we have access to such methods of treatment that allow us to live to a ripe old age and die from a common disease. But, of course, you need to take antiretroviral drugs all the time.

Pernicious carelessness

HIV is not scary today, it can be cured

- It is not yet possible to cure HIV, it can only be kept in check. But taking medicine all the time and taking care not to infect anyone (because if you do, you can go to jail) is still not the easiest life.

HIV tests often show an incorrect positive result

- During the initial examination, indeed, mistakes happen quite often. Their probability is about 1 in 100, and if you study 100 million people, you already get a million errors. But all these primary results are necessarily verified by more accurate analyzes, which already undoubtedly give the correct answer.

HIV is the lot of risk groups. I am not a drug addict and therefore I will never get HIV

- Now almost everyone is in risk groups. It is enough to have one sexual partner to already be at the risk of infection. Unfortunately, cases of infection have again appeared in medical institutions. So far, they are isolated, but if you do not fight HIV infection, the risk of such transmission will increase. The more HIV-infected people there are, the greater the risk of infection, including in hospitals

Sex between people living with HIV is safe

- This is a difficult question. With unprotected sex, you can get infected not only with HIV. We observed among people living with HIV, outbreaks of syphilis, hepatitis C. As for HIV itself, there is a possibility of contracting different variants of the virus. However, this does not significantly affect the course of the disease and its prognosis. The fact is that one strain always prevails over another and becomes defining.

Today we can say that there are two large groups of HIV - the first and the second type. HIV infection of the second type is slower, but it occurs mainly in Portuguese-speaking countries. In other countries, this type is very rare.

Drug therapy is not necessary at the onset of the disease

- This is true, but still, the earlier you start taking medications, the better the prognosis. It is now recommended to start treatment as soon as HIV infection is detected. But since this tends to happen in healthy people, many of them are reluctant to start treatment. This is such a psychological moment: as soon as you started taking medications, you no longer seem healthy to yourself. Therefore, this issue is always resolved individually, taking into account the opinion of doctors and the patient, test indicators. But if a person has indications for treatment, it is clear that immunity is already impaired, and there is no alternative, then it is imperative to start taking drugs.

AIDS dissidence

HIV itself is a big medical myth. And besides, HIV has nothing to do with AIDS

- You can, of course, assert anything, say that the Earth is square, and even give some evidence. But in fact, all this reasoning is based on false assumptions - data from the 80s of the last century are used, when we did not yet know everything about HIV infection. Today there is no longer any doubt that HIV infection exists and that the immunodeficiency virus causes AIDS.

Initially, the confusion arose due to the fact that the violation of immunity may have other causes. But these are completely different immunodeficiencies. Immunity impairment in HIV infection, what is called AIDS, is a very specific and unique phenomenon that does not occur in other conditions.

Many deaths are mistakenly attributed to AIDS and HIV infection

- The fact is that now there is no such thing as death from AIDS in our country. There can only be death from HIV infection or from some other reason. Death from AIDS is not used in our statistics at all, so there can be no mistakes. There is no doubt about HIV infection. The difficulty is precisely in the interpretation of the concept of AIDS, as there is a great confusion between the immunodeficiency in AIDS and other variants of immunodeficiency. And to avoid this confusion, the cause of death is indicated precisely by HIV infection. If she was not, then something else became the cause of death.