Beware of the window period, caution doctors

Ensure that extraneous blood injected in your body is HIV free, huge billboards across the state scream with a thunderous cacophony as health minister Ashok Bhatt embarked on yet another awareness campaign against the dreaded killer.

But even if you practice restrain and play it safe chances are that you may still contract the HIV if you inject blood donated by an HIV patient during the window period.

"The AIDS virus goes undetected during a period between six weeks to six months known in medical parlance as the window period when it is still in its dormant stage. On an average during the first three months when the virus sets in into the person it would be very difficult to detect it through tests from his blood samples," additional projects director, Gujarat State AIDS Control Society, Dr D.M. Saxena said.

The Elisa test, Rapid Simple test and the Western Blot test used to diagonize HIV infected blood is inept to detect the virus during its nascent stage. "The result of the test during this period will read HIV negative as all these tests are based on anti-body formations which may not be detected in its incipient stage," Dr Saxena said.

Dr Saxena informed that doctors in the US were ecstatic as they had evolved a sure way of detecting AIDS through the Polymerase Chain Reaction test, considered to be the most reliable tests for AIDS detection but that too had failed to detect the virus at an early stage of infection.

He said that chances of such cases of spread of the virus during the window period is rare in the country as the rate of prevalence of the disease is very low. "Out of a population of 100 crore in the country about 35 lakh people are HIV positive."

The rate however may be lower in the state as an estimated 68,000 persons are estimated to have contracted HIV according to a survey conducted by the National AIDS control Organisation. The situation of spread of the virus during the window period is rare and a survey in the US reports that one out of 80,000 persons contracted the virus during this period.

"The number of fully blown cases of AIDS in the Gujarat is 860 at present," Dr Saxena said. The portents are dangerous as there is less awareness.

"In the first five to six years of AIDS awareness campaign we had taken recourse of mass media for spreading awareness. The medium however failed to appeal to the rural population and was targeted more towards the urban areas," Dr Saxena said.

"This time we have decided to concentrate on the rural population and hope to reach them through door to door campaigning," he added. The state government has taken up targeted intervention programmes with the help of sex workers in Surat, Ahmedabad and Rajkot. A programme is scheduled to start early in Vadodara to detect persons vulnerable to AIDS. Specific programmes will be launched to raise awareness in the slum dwellers, migrant workers, diamond workers and prisoners to raise awareness among them.

Street children and rag pickers are also being included in the targeted intervention group as vulnerability to sexual abuse and STD’s is high in these cases.

"We have initiated a campaigning to identify groups with a high risk behaviour and motivate them to change their behaviour," Dr Saxena said. Sentinel surveillance is also being conducted on persons with a high risk background as part of the national surveillance of sexually transmitted diseases. The state government has also adopted a human approach of total confidentiality in cases of AIDS and state hospitals have been directed not to discriminate with patients. "The Naco has sanctioned a grant of Rs 9 crore for the state for treatment of AIDS. The spendings of the state is expected to be much higher," Dr Saxena said.

Tell us what do you think about this article?

Republished from Asian Age