Bloodborne HIV: Don't Get Stuck!

It’s a point that is not often acknowledged, and often misunderstood, but HIV does survive ‘outside a human body’ for a long time. Searching the issue online, you may think that HIV ‘dies in seconds’ because that’s what it says on many sites, often sites maintained by those who should know better (or perhaps do know better but haven’t got around to saying so yet?).

The question is, do you want someone else’s blood on instruments that are used to puncture your skin?

There have been a lot of instances of contaminated instruments being used on patients in connection with diabetes, testing, monitoring, injecting, etc. Equipment is misused by staff who have not been properly trained. As a result, thousands have had to be tested for HIV and hepatitis and at least 15 people have been infected in the US alone.

Such incidents are probably underreported and might not even be noticed by those who are misinformed about the risks involved. An incident in Wisconsin is particularly interesting and was reported by whistleblowers, rather than by proper infection control procedures. The healthcare worker involved thought it was OK if she changed the needle on a fingerstick pen, not realizing that “blood can backflow into the pen’s reservoir and contaminate the next person pricked by the pen”.

A similar phenomenon can occur when injections are being administered and some healthcare workers don’t realize that it is not enough just to change the needle, while reusing the syringe.

The HIV industry still denies the possible contribution of healthcare related transmissions of HIV in African countries, without having carried out adequate investigations. But it’s a little comfort to hear a CDC epidemiologist saying: “One of the most common myths is that contamination is limited to the needle. An insulin cartridge is a form of syringe. And a syringe and needle should be seen as a single device. One can contaminate the other.”

Let’s hope that what applies in the US also applies in Africa (hint hint, UNAIDS, WHO and even CDC, who have a massive influence in Africa).

A group of researchers in Cameroon have carried out the sort of research work that UNAIDS is loath to do. They investigated levels of unsafe reuse of injecting equipment in hospitals. Generally, such investigation only goes as far as to observe injecting behavior in hospitals and health facilities, where the health workers know they are being observed and can adjust their behavior accordingly.

These researchers looked for misconceptions about injection safety that could lead to unsafe reuse of equipment. They also established whether unsafe reuse was related to shortages of injection equipment. They found that equipment reuse is common, being practiced by 44% of health workers in public hospitals. They also found that there is a shortage of equipment.

It was concluded that injection safety interventions could significantly reduce transmission of HIV, hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV). In addition to effective interventions, the researchers recommended the use of autodisable syringes, which break after use and so can not be reused.

The mixed messages African people get from UNAIDS have got to stop. If the UN can not guarantee the safety of conditions in African hospitals for their own employees, nor can they guarantee safety for Africans, who have little or no option about which health facilities they can use. UNAIDS also needs to stop claiming that 80, or even 90% of HIV is transmitted through unsafe heterosexual sex in African countries.

An article from Zimbabwe asks ‘Is the [HIV] message clear enough for the youth?’ After all, various HIV campaigns have been going for many years. But many of these campaigns depict HIV positive people, and those at risk of being infected, as immoral and as people who are involved in all sorts of ‘disreputable’ activities.

Then the article introduces ‘Shirley’, who is 18 and thinks she knows everything about HIV. Yet, after donating blood, she was called by the clinic and asked to make an appointment to see the doctor there. She turned out to be HIV positive. She was already sexually active but she generally took precautions, with a couple of exceptions.

It appears from the story  that Shirley is still not aware that she is more likely to have been infected in the blood donation clinic than through having unprotected sex ‘a couple’ of times. But she told her partner the results of her test, who refused to be tested himself, and the relationship has now ended.

Shirley concludes from this that her former boyfriend infected her, even though she doesn’t even know whether he was infected or not. HIV prevalence among teenage males is usually considerably lower than among females, so it is very likely that he is HIV negative and that, even if he is HIV positive, he is still unlikely to have infected her after so few sex acts.

The blood donation clinic in Zimbabwe needs to investigate the possibility that this young woman was infected as a result of donating blood. The VCT clinic she attended, more importantly, needs to ask clients about their non-sexual risks, as well as their sexual risks. Especially when the risk of sexual exposure was so low. And children, in and out of school, need to be informed of the non-sexual risks they face in order to take precautions.

That’s what this site is about, letting people know that HIV transmission is not just about sex, it is also about contaminated blood and other bodily fluids that people can come into contact with when visiting health and cosmetic facilities.

Welcome all!

The purpose of this blog and website is to help people protect themselves from HIV during medical and cosmetic procedures, such as getting an injection, having one’s head shaved, getting a tattoo or pedicure, or going to the dentist. Check through the A-Z of site content to see if you might be taking any risks!

We intend to develop this site with contributions from visitors. We’d like to include posters and other training materials, couselling guides, and whatever else might be useful to help people recognize and avoid HIV from blood contacts.

Substantial updates and improvements will be highlighted in the blog. We will also list pertinent articles that appear mentioning HIV transmission through healthcare and cosmetic procedures.

If you have any comments, please write. In addition to this blog, you can find a comment form on every page. We will try to get back to you, and we will consider every comment, but we can’t promise to comply with every request!

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