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AIDS/pill with blood on it

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Expert: - 5/9/2011


Question
Thanks for taking my question. Recently, I swallowed a pill and just before swallowing it I noticed it had a large reddish looking spot on it. I had purchased these pills from the pharmacy about ten minutes prior and they were in the capped medication bottle. I took the pill before realizing none of the other pills had a large reddish dot on them. Worst case sceneario is what if this red spot on the pill had been moist hiv blood and I swallowed it? Is there a chance I could get hiv from a pill with a large red moist spot on it that could have been hiv blood that would have been in the bottle for about 10 minutes? Also what if I had any small cuts in my mouth? I realize this is kind of a weird question but I would like a little reassurance. Thank you kindly for your response.

Answer
Hello Sandra!

Here is a basic column before I proceed to your questions:

HIV usually requires direct transmission. It's also about 'viral load' (the virus need be present in fluid cells in sufficient concentration and amount to make one infected). Also, in case of HIV transmission, often experts say, "once it's dried, consider it's died".

In your case, the large reddish dot in the pill:
1. Does not necessarily indicate it's blood
2. If we consider it was blood, it was dry and thus unable to infect someone
3. FINALLY, HIV does not transmit through eating or drinking. As of studies done so far and as of references from CDC, there is not a single incident of this.

So, please relax.

Sorry for my delayed response. Have a nice weekend.

Regards,
Gorkey

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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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