What do you know about HIV and AIDS?

In the 40 years since the start of the HIV epidemic, according to UNAIDS – the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDs, there were 75.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 32.7 million have died while 38 million are currently infected with the disease of which 1.7 million were infected in 2019 alone. While 81% of those infected are aware of their disease and 25.4 million continue antiretroviral therapy (67%).

The first patient in Tajikistan was officially registered in 1991. According to the Republican AIDS Center, the total number of identified people with HIV as of September 30, 2020 is 12876, of which 3547 have died. In 2020, 250 fewer people with HIV were registered than in 2019. What is the reason for this, we do not know, but we are assuming that due to the pandemic less people have contacted the center.

HIV is a virus (retrovirus) that causes immunodeficiency. This virus infects cells of the immune system and leads to a progressive depletion of it, which results in immunodeficiency.

AIDS is a mix of symptoms and infections caused by HIV. The term “AIDS” is applied to the last stages of HIV infection. Without treatment, most people with HIV develop AIDS symptoms after 8–10 years, sometimes it can take longer, while other times less.

It’s very hard to get infected with HIV from the people you are living with. The risk of HIV transmission depends on the number of viruses contained in the biological fluid of an HIV-infected person with which a healthy person is in contact. If a person is under the supervision of a doctor and receives timely treatment, there will be no harm to others.

The risk of HIV transmission is reduced even during sexual intercourse, provided that the patient receives treatment, because, thanks to treatment, the risk of infection is reduced to zero.

There are people who have been living with HIV for more than 15 years, have a healthy partner, have given birth to a healthy child and are not using protection. Infection most often occurs from those people who do not know that they are sick or not taking any medications. A person with a positive HIV status must always be under strict medical supervision.

– Mother-to-child transmission

– Injectable, through blood

– Sexual transmission of infection

Infectious and dangerous biological fluids:

– Blood

– Sperm

– Vaginal fluids

– Breast milk

In these fluids, the virus is found in maximum concentrations or in concentrations sufficient for an infection.

Biological fluids containing the virus in low concentration and not posing a risk of infection:

– Urine

– Tears

– Saliva

– Sputum

– Sweat

You can’t get HIV:

– By airborne droplets (when coughing, sneezing)

– Via insect bites

– Through touch or hug

– Through kissing

– When visiting the pools

– When using a public toilet

– When shaking hands

– With contacts at work or school

– When using a shared phone

– Through water and food

– When sharing dishes

The majority of people living with HIV in Tajikistan became infected through sexual intercourse – 83%.

No, said Takhmina Khaidarova, head of Tajikistan’s Network of Women Living with HIV. Most people in Tajikistan are still intolerant towards HIV-positive people.

The society is especially not tolerant towards women.

“In Tajikistan, more than 3,000 women live with this disease, 80 percent of whom are housewives infected by migrant husbands and husbands that have been infected through injection. When people know that a woman has AIDS, the first thought that comes to their mind is that she is a prostitute, which is how she contracted the disease. Women are so afraid of these rumors and as a result hide their illness. Most women learn about their illness during pregnancy, which puts them at a risk of abuse from their husband’s family. The problem is that a woman cannot dare to ask her husband, who has returned from migration, to use protection, because this can lead to the destruction of the family.

When we conducted a survey in 2013, almost 80 percent of the women said that when they first found out about their illness, the first thing that occurred to them was suicide. Because people say it is a disease for prostitutes and drug addicts. In our practice, there are cases when even parents do not accept their daughter, who was infected by her husband. So, there is no tolerance! ”

In Tajikistan, there are currently 320 laboratories where you can get tested for HIV infection. In Dushanbe, this can be done at the Republican AIDS Center, at the Dushanbe city AIDS Center, express tests are also carried out in 15 polyclinics in the capital, in private clinics and laboratories you can also take HIV tests. Four mobile laboratories travel to remote areas, these are large cars donated by the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing or Rospotrebnadzor of Russia. Each week, one district is selected, and cars are sent there according to a plan drawn up by the Republican AIDS Center.

This is theoretically possible. In cases of serious violation of the rules of sanitation. But there are no such cases in the country. Zukhra Nurlyaminova believes that it is impossible to assert with absolute certainty that people became infected in beauty salons or at a dentist. Because it is very difficult to prove exactly where a person got infected if he also had unprotected sex with a random partner or there were some other factors involved.

In her practice, there was a situation when a child was diagnosed with HIV, but his parents were not. They went to court, but it was impossible to prove anything, because there was no evidence.

Scientists say you can. Over 40 years of studying this disease, scientists have come to the conclusion that the life expectancy of people with HIV infection is equal to that of ordinary people.

But only in that case if the infection is detected at an early stage and the patient receives treatment. Scientists at the University of Bristol found that the life expectancy of a 20-year-old patient after the first year of treatment, who started antiretroviral therapy after 2008 and has a low concentration of the virus in the blood, is 78 years. That is, the same as for the healthy population.

The main problem at the moment is the detection rate of the infection.

Therefore – lead a healthy lifestyle, follow the recommendations of doctors and periodically check your HIV status.