Times of India: Mumbai: Friday, February 09, 2018.
Transmission
of HIV through infected needles doesn't seem to be restricted to villages in
Uttar Pradesh alone. Patients in Maharashtra too have, over the years, claimed
to have contracted HIV through infected needles or syringes.
An RTI
response from National Aids Control Society (NACO) showed that over 500 people
in the state have got HIV through infected needles. Between 2012-13 and
2016-17, 512 disclosed at Integrated Centres for Testing and Counselling
(ICTCs) that exposure to infected needle was responsible for the infection,
said RTI activist Chetan Kothari. Numbers suggest an average 70-200 people get
HIV through infected needles every year. In 2017-18, 69 people, including 29
women, contracted the infection.
But the
numbers have been highly debated by state agencies working towards controlling the
disease. Parimal Sinh, who heads the state Aids control society, said less than
0.5% of new infections are due to infected needles. Over 90% of the infection
in the state happens through the heterosexual route.
"More
importantly, the needle-infection numbers are based on voluntary disclosures
made by people during counselling sessions before and after they are tested for
HIV in ICTCs. Often, patients tend to suggest blood transfusion and infection
through needles as possible mode of transmission. While our counsellors try to
find out the exact reason, we also have to keep in mind the mental state of the
patient."
Medically
too, a single needle usage may not necessarily mean transmission of HIV. Eldred
Tellis of Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust, that has been working with intravenous
drug users (IDUs), said the virus could survive for three hours in the bore of
a needle as there is vacuum, but otherwise it would die within 10 seconds.
"But since HIV is a weak virus, the viral load of the infected person has
to be really high for transmission. Studies suggest that one in 10 persons will
get HIV if the needle is infected."
Interestingly,
the highest HIV prevalence (7%) in the country is among IDUs, who use addictive
substances through injections by exchanging needles. "In most cases, they
pull out blood and put it back in the syringe to extract maximum of the drug
and inject into veins contributing to high HIV infection," he said. Tellis
added that the authorities must also think of hepatitis C infection as that
transmits more efficiently than HIV. "In Mumbai IDUs, hepatitis prevalence
is around 35%, whereas HIV is 9.5%," he said.
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