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Expert: - 12/25/2008


Question
Hi,

First I just want to thank this forum and the people here.

A few days back I went to visit a person who is HIV+. Now an incident happened which is worrying me a lot.

I had to use his bike a couple of times and for that I also borrowed his helmet. Now everytime I took the helmet off my head something scraped against my right ear, it hurt, and there was a burning sensation. This happened a couple of times.

I examined the helmet and saw that the fabric inside the hemet had become very stiff and was broken in places. Several edges from the stiff cushioing were projecting out. When I noticed my ear there were two cuts. It was not like blood was dripping out of them, but definitely the skin was broken and they hurt.

I am really worrying about this incident. The fabric inside the helmet was something similar to the material of which seats coverings are made(not leather, something similar) With use it becomes stiff and cracks and starts to come off. Pieces start projecting from it and can hurt you if you scrape against it.

Now anybody who used that helmet would have been hurt while taking off the helmet. 2-3 times I used the helmet just after he had used it. There was however a 5-10 minute gap between his taking off the helmet and mine using it. Can this be a means of transmission. Should I worry about the cuts on my ear and get tested?


Thanks a lot.

Answer
Dear 'godsfollower'

HIV does not live long (few seconds only) without receptor. And you have mentioned 5-10 minute gap. So, there is absolutely nothing worry about. You will certainly not become infected this way.

But you should take care of the cuts on you ear. Have a nice day.

Thanks for asking and best regards.

AIDS

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Gorkey Gourab

Expertise

Social and behavioral issues related to HIV transmission, sexually transmitted infections, Human Rights issues, rights of marginalized populations, gender and sexuality, research design and analysis related social & behavioral issues, , computer assisted qualitative data analysis and data management (using ATLAS.ti, ANTHROPAC, NVivo 8)

Experience

Specialized in Medical Anthropology. Working on Social and behavioral studies related to HIV transmission as well as Human Rights issues. Specialization in gender, sexuality, masculinity, behavioral studies related to HIV transmission. Qualitative research, programmatic and M&E experience with MSM, hijra (TG), indigenous groups, female sex workers for more than 7 years.

Organizations
International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) as Manager - M&E (Qualitative) with Center for HIV and AIDS

Publications
International peer-reviewed journals & technical papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., Gourab, G., & Bhuiya, A. (2009). Living on the extreme margin: Social exclusion of the hijra in Bangladesh. Journal of health, population and nutrition. (2) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G., Parveen, S., Bhuiyan, M. I., & Sikder, J. (2008). Not to stigmatize but to humanize sexual lives of the transgender (hijra): condom chat in the AIDS era. Journal of LGBT Health Research (Special issue: issues on male sexual behaviors and HIV risk in South Asia). Working papers: (1) Khan, S. I., Gourab, G., Ahmed, T., Sarker, G. F., Chowdhury, F. K., Ghosh, S., et al. (2009). Understanding the operational dynamics and possible HIV interventions for residence-based female sex workers in two divisional cities in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: NASP, Save the Children USA and icddr,b. Presentations in scientific meetings and conferences: (1) Khan, S. I., Hussain, M. I., Gourab, G. & Azim, T. (2011, 16 March 2011). Use of a new approach to count and access diverse groups of hijra for scaling up HIV-preventions services in Bangladesh. Poster presented at the 13th Annual Scientific Conference (ASCON XIII), Dhaka. (2) Khan, S. I., Pasa, K., Gourab, G., & Islam, A. (2007). Indigenous populations of Bangladesh: Living with risks and vulnerabilities to STIs/HIV. 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP). Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Education/Credentials
MSS (Anthropology), University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Awards and Honors
The Vanderbilt-UAB Fogarty International Center AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP)Scholarship for the training on HIV-AIDS related qualitative data analysis and manuscript writing (Center for Global Health, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)

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