Medical Expert: Dr Sunil Solomon
Dr Solomon is currently working as a Medical Officer and Epidemiologist at Y R Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRG CARE), Chennai India. In-patient care, strengthening clinical database structure and analysis and outpatient HIV management services are among the many functions that Dr Solomon performs. He has presented AIDS related topics at various medical conferences like the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, the first National Conference of AIDS Society of India, the seventh ICAAP conference in Kobe, Japan to name a few.

Legal Expert: Mr Anand Grover
Mr Grover founded the Lawyer Collective HIV/AIDS Unit and is also a member of drafting team for the International Guidelines on Human Rights and HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, and UN Human Rights Commission. He is also actively involved in setting up and participating in various organizations like HELP, MAVA, the legal network for AIDS/HIV prevention etc.

Here are the excerpts of the one hour informative chat.

indya: Hi all, welcome to the special World Aids Day chat with Dr Sunil Solomon and Mr Anand Grover. You can start posting your questions now.

indya: Welcome Dr Solomon and Mr Grover. Shall we start the chat session?

Sunil Soloman: Yes please go ahead.
Anand Grover: Yes
Guest 18: Mr Grover, I want to know if a person is HIV positve, would his wife have rights to divorce him?

indya: Keep those questions coming in people. Let's kNOw Aids!

Anand Grover: Yes, a wife can divorce her husband if her husband is HIV positive. Most of the personal laws, marriage and divorce laws, provide for divorce on the ground of communicable venereal disease which HIV is.
Guest 1: Will AIDS spread through mosquito bite?
Anand Grover: The answer is a clear No!
Sunil Soloman: HIV cannot spread thru mosquito bites for the following reasons:
(1) The HIV virus gets digested by the mosquito:
(2) Mosquitoes do not ingest enough HIV particles.
(3) The salivary and the food canals of the mosquitoes are two separate canals.
Guest 14: Mr Gorver, In hospitals, what should one do if the doctor refuses to admit a positive patient?
Anand Grover: I think that your answer is to do with treatment, if the doctor is working in a public sector or state owned hospital, then it would be discriminatory and they can go to court, but not if it is private set up.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, what other STD (sexual transmitted dieseases) are dominant in India?
Sunil Soloman:We have the whole spectrum of STIs in India namely Herpes, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia-trachomatis infection are some of the more common ones.
Guest 37: Anand, Why isn't sexual awareness education made compulsory in India when the numbers are so alarming?
Anand Grover: It should be but the government has not done to what is necessary.
Tomcat: Dr Sunil is AIDS curable through Ayurvedic medication?
Sunil Soloman: Though there are a lot of claims, I have not really seen a single patients cured of HIV or a report in any peer-reviewed journal of Ayurveda as a cure. Hence at this point I must say no.
Guest 37: Mr Anand, what are the education policies concerning AIDS?
Anand Grover: Unfortunately there are no education policies concerning AIDS worth the name.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, are condoms well available in rural areas of India where there aren't any doctors? What is being done?
Sunil Soloman: I am pretty sure that all primary health centers stock nirodh. I am not sure about areas where there are no doctors as I have never been to any such areas. But the government of Tamil Nadu has started establishing condom vending machines, and I think this will dramatically improve access to condoms.
Guest 37: Mr Anand, how to protect oneself from work place discrimination of HIV positive people?
Anand Grover: In the public sector where anti-discrimination constitutional are applicable, an HIV +ve worker can protect himself from discrimination but it is not so in the private sector.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, can HIV positive mothers breast feed?
Sunil Soloman: HIV can be transmitted even during breast-feeding and hence positive mothers should avoid breastfeeding as far as possible.
Guest 39: The best part of he Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit? (to Anand)
Anand Grover: I am sorry, I did not understand the question about the Lawyers Collective!
indya: Mr Grover, I guess the user wants to know the advantage for HIV positive patients when they approach the Lawyer Collective.
Anand Grover: We provide free legal advice and legal aid, like going to court on behalf of all HIV positive persons and all those who are vulnerable to it, including MSM, IDUs and sex workers through our offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, which section of the population is considered risky?
Sunil Soloman:We generally consider anyone with multiple sexual partners and drug users as risky... However, there is an increasing number of housewives with single partners who are testing positive.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, can the virus be stored, there have been stories of frustrated positive patients infecting others with syringes, is it true and is it possible?
Sunil Soloman:Yes, Sharing of needles with HIV infected blood in the bore can transmit HIV... Hence, always ask your doctor for a 'Disposable Syringe' or buy one yourself when you need to get a shot.
Tomcat: Mr Anand, even though 'lack of education' seems to be the main reason for increased AIDS spread in our country, how can we justify urban areas registering more cases?
Anand Grover: There is no question of justifying high cases anywhere. But you are right, in urban areas we should stagnate. However, rural areas are seeing a dramatic rise in numbers now.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, will I be infected if an animal with HIV bites me, considering the history of HIV was first transmitted by an ape to humans?
Sunil Soloman: That is just one theory of HIV. And NO! because animals cannot get infected with HIV. Apes have what we call SIV (Simian Immuno-defieciency Virus) and it is believed that HIV might be a modified form of SIV.
Guest 37: Mr Anand, if a positive kid is studying with my kid at school, what should I tell my kids, how do I protect my kid from the infection?
Anand Grover: The risk of HIV transmission in a school setting is so low that it should be ignored. In fact, you should use the knowledge to help preventing discrimination amongst other parents and kids.
Tomcat: Dr Sunil, is it true it takes three months to actually detect if the person is HIV after the incident?
Sunil Soloman: That depends on the test. The new generation ELISA can detect a HIV positive person by about eight to ten weeks of infection, but we always use 12 weeks just to be safe. A PCR test could detect someone as soon as 72 hours after infection. But the PCR is expensive (Rs 4000) and has to be repeated after 2 weeks or confirmed with an ELISA and requires highly skilled lab staff.
Guest 37: Mr Anand, are the HIV positive confidentiality rights well protected in India?
Anand Grover: HIV positive person's confidentiality rights are protected through what is known as common law, originally law made by English judges. Because it is not statutory law, and also it is dependant on opinions of individual judges, these rights are not well protected.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, what is blood packing exactly, why and when is it done?
indya: The chat closes in five minutes, people… Time enough for the last couple questions only.
Sunil Soloman: Blood packing is something that is generally done only among atheletes. What they do is they collect the oxygen rich blood cells from an athlete at a point in time and inject it back into the athlete, just before the race to improve his performance.
Guest 37: Dr Sunil, if I want to test myself, and keep it a secret, what should I do, and where should I go?
Sunil Soloman: You can go to any voluntary counseling and testing center (VCTC). At our VCTC, all we do is give you a number… We do not collect information on name, address, etc indya: Dr Solomon, Mr Grover, we will close the chat now. Any sign-off message for all the people who have logged in?
Sunil Soloman:Thank you for all your questions. Let's kNOw AIDS and stop it's spread!
Anand Grover: Thanks everybody. Let us fight AIDS together.
indya: Dr Solomon, would you like to give us your contact details, in case any one wants to contact you?

indya: Mr Grover, where can the users contact you, if they want to?
Sunil Soloman: sunil@yrgcare.org or (044)-22542929
Anand Grover: You can contact us at Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit at:
Mumbai - aidslaw@lawyerscollective.org, 022-22875483
Delhi - aidslaw1@lawyerscollective.org; 011-24377101
Bangalore - aidslaw2@lawyerscollective.org, 080-51239131

indya: Thank you Dr Solomon, Mr Grover for taking time off for this very informative chat. Thank you all, for logging in. Let's kNOw Aids and spread the safety message!

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