HIV & SARS: Activists should not be confused

[Guest guest]

Hi,

There were few mails in this forum comparing the HIV epidemic and SARS and the

human right issues. In my opinion SARS and HIV are entirely different diseases

epidemiologically.It is very important activists are not confused regarding

this.

HIV patients are not quarantined because quarantine is neither effective nor

practical in a disease, which spreads sexual, and blood born route and has a

very long incubation period. SARS is presumed to be transmitted droplet route

and has a relatively short incubation period which makes quarantine effective.

There are many other diseases in the history (like TB and Leprosy) for which

isolation and /or quarantine was practiced and was not proved useful. I invite a

detailed discussion by infectious disease epidemiologists in this issue.

Dr Ajithkumar.K

E-mail: trc_ajisudha@...

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

Ref: Dr. AjitKumar's posting on " HIV & SARS: Activists should not be confused "

I do not know how the comparison of SARS to HIV could even be considered. The

epidemiology is completely different. The high risk population is also

completely different. Incubation times, method of infection and opportunistic

infections as complications is also very different. In fact the ONLY factor I

find similar is that both diseases strike fear, sometimes completely irrational

fear into the general population. HIV is a very " fragile " virus unlike the

currently accepted corona mutated virus which can exist outside the human body

for at least 24 hours. HIV can only survive a second outside the body. With HIV

there are specific risk factors that make someone susceptible to infection, and

casual contact is not one of them. With SARS casual contact...even gowned,

gloved and goggled usually leads to infection. Like it or not people who have

SARS must be quarantined until completely recovered. But by the time they feel

ill they may have passed the virus along to hundreds of people. Telephones,

doorknobs, towels or clothing can transmit SARS. None of these can create HIV

infection. I feel the issue of stigma for PLWA has also carried over to SARS.

The idea that somehow only " those " people will become infected has carried over

from HIV to SARS.

SARS is an excellent example of how easily panic can spread when the public

is not informed of what is happening around them. The initial attempts to hide

SARS was both a medical and political debacle. We can only guess how many

infections could have been prevented if it was only contained earlier.I have

friends who were involved in the efforts in Beijing to stop any further cases.

They described the area as looking abandoned. No markets, no vehicles, no

people. A ghost town. I fear there are more cases, especially in China that are

simply not reported. The tourism and financial powers that be are losing

enormous amounts of money. Even people on holiday who planned to go to Canada

are refused, as is border traffic from Canada to the US. I believe the only

" relationship " between HIV and SARS is that both are very difficult to treat, and

potentially fatal.

People have said that SARS has " only " killed XXX number of people. It is not

the number of dead that is critical but rather the dearth of information on

exactly what it is and effective ways to treat it. We cannot afford to let it

slip by....we still don't even have a 100% positive identification of what SARS

really means. Without a definitive test SARS is diagnosed primarily by symptoms

and people who have been anywhere near a SARS infected individual. We have to

isolate SARS and find specific signs that allow us to tell if someone has been

infected. A vaccine of course cannot be developed before we isolate SARS.

Both HIV and SARS must be dealt with as soon as possible. I think it very

unwise to push SARS away as if it was only a one time problem.

Jeanne Hatfield

Chair

HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Council

E-mail: ravaids@...