Re: A False report from UNAIDS

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum:

I have been reading the back and forth allegations, and denials of the incident

surrounding the PLWAs at Sahar airport. After reading through all these I am

still confused. It looks like there are two issues involved:

a) The fact that they were quarantined inspite of having the waivers.

The fact of discrimination and ill tretment.

As regards the fact that they were quarantined --from a public health point of

view I can see why they were- because due to no fault of their own, they might

have been carrying the disease which might have spread to the general

population. But they should been told before hand that inspite of having the

waivers, they might be quatantined when they would return.

But as regards the allegations of ill tretment and discrimination-- it is

deplorable. If some people without vaccination got away and could get away scot

free and others were not-- that is not right. If they were ill treated-- that

was not right either. They shoud have been treated with dignity and respect.

The health departments that issued the waivers should have foreseen that people

with waivers would be coming back to India without any form of immunity against

yellow fever and should have had clear cut guidelines as to what to do about

that situation. Then the health department officals should have informed the

conference attendees before they left India so that they would have had the

choice to attend or not to attend the conference. All these discussions about

who visited whom and when would have been redundant.

Sathi Dasgupta.

E-mail: <sathi_dasgupta@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

" As regards the fact that they were quarantined --from a public health point of

view I can see why they were- because due to no fault of their own, they might

have been carrying the disease which might have spread to the general

population. But they should been told before hand that inspite of having the

waivers, they might be quatantined when they would return " .

First, I agree wholeheartedly with the utterly outrageous treatment. It seems to

me disingenuous in the extreme to think this bribe-seeking criminal so-called

" doctor " (a shame to the profession) was in any way interested in the public

health. A grisly blend of greed and bigotry that should be dealt with on the

criminal judicial level in my view.

I think from the standpoint of public health in it's genuine form, understanding

the risks of yellow fever, immunization and clarifying immigration policy is an

aspect of the case that has not been properly reviewed. I've been meaning to

look into the risks of yellow fever, acquisition, spread, symptoms and other

indicators that might suggest whether a risk is actually present and at what

level.

One excellent article is available at:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5117.pdf and

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/yellowfever/index.htm.

Particularly, we should be aware of the potential risk that people unable to Get

a vaccine might face should they acquire the disease while suffering immune

compromise.

A quick review of the literature yielded a couple of abstracts, appended below.

Other thoughts on what current Indian law is and any suggestions for changes to

it under the circumstances of suppressed immunity/HIV disease would be a good

topic of discussion!

M.

e-MAIL: <fiar@...>

***

[Why access to CD4 counting on a routine and inexpensive basis is

critically important for ALL people with HIV.]

Receveur MC, Thiebaut R, Vedy S, Malvy D, Mercie P, Bras ML. Yellow fever

vaccination of human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients: report of 2

cases. Clin Infect Dis. 2000 Sep;31(3):E7-8.

Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Hospital

Saint Andre, Bordeaux, France. marie-catherine. receveur@...

Yellow fever vaccine (17D, a live attenuated virus vaccine) was effective

and safe in 2 human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients without severe

immunosuppression, one of whom traveled to Kenya and the other of whom

traveled to Senegal.