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Expert: - 3/27/2010


Question
Dear Gorkey,

Thank you very much for the great job that you are doing.
I donated blood last week, and after drawing the blood they asked me to hold a piece of gauze for 6 minutes and push it gently to stop the bleed then a nurse applied a Band-aid, But when she put the Band-Aid she wore glove in one hand only and she used the other hand to open the Band-aid, my question is, what the chances of HIV transmission if she touched the cotton piece on the Band-aid (very likely)then she applied the band-aid on the wound? I am worried because she was working on another donor before she applied the Band-aid on me and it seems she doesn't like wearing gloves.

Your help is highly appreciated.

Thank you again.

Armando

Answer
Dear Armando,

In clinical settings universal precautions should be practiced in any environment where workers are exposed to bodily fluids (by means of the wearing of nonporous articles such as medical gloves) in order to avoid transmission of pathogens.

At the same time HIV is a very fragile virus which can live really shorter period outside receptor. And if someone is not suffering from bleeding disorder or anti-coagulant is used, it is likely that blood will coagulate quickly. HIV does not transmit through dry blood.

In your case, although the nurse should use gloves in both hands, the risk of HIV transmission is not present considering the above scenario. So, nothing to be worried about.

Sorry for my delayed response.

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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