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AIDS/aids infection from used sanitary napkin

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Expert: - 11/30/2009


Question
hi Gorkey,

A friend(girl) of mine stays in a hostel where a maid comes and disposes all the used sanitary pads from bathroom container. My friend was using the soap from her soapcase to wash her hands which was kept in the bathroom. Sometimes after washing her hand she pricked pimples on her face(lets say after a minute or so). After a year my friend realised that maid also washes her hands with the soap from her soapcase though she never saw the maid using her soap. Now she is worried that if maid has come in contact with the sanitary pad of any HIV infected person and used the soap from her soapcase and since she pricked her pimple afterwards she may get infected with HIV(she does not know if maid is infected with HIV or not and also my friend stays in a medical college hospital).

I know its a very very remote or impossible case i am unable to convince her and my friend is not able to concentrate on her studies. Your reply is very much awaited.

Thanks for help.

Answer
Dear Priya,

Yes, you are absolutely right. There is no possibility of HIV transmission in this way. HIV is a very fragile virus and many common substances such as soap can destroy the virus. It means that HIV can't survive on soaps (but, washing genital area after having unprotected sex is different issue. HIV can transmit this way since it's after risky exposure).

Since, in the case you mentioned, it's about washing hands and later using the same soap for different purposes, there is no possibility of HIV transmission as no risky exposure is associated here. So there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

I'm really sorry for being late.

Sincere regards,
Gorkey

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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