How can you save yourself after having close contact with him/her?

This is the 2748th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

AIDS Science Series 2

——After close contact with him/her...

A few days ago, a friend called me in the middle of the night and cried, her daughter who is still in college was diagnosed with AIDS, and the whole family was panicked? Her daughter is now crying every day and dare not go to school, fearing that her classmates will discriminate and exclude her, and even more afraid that her young life will end here.

Image source: Shanghai Oriental Hospital Emergency and Critical Care Nursing Team

Sexual transmission has become the first route of infection for new HIV infections in my country. In recent years, the ivory tower has gradually become a high-incidence area for HIV. Young people on campus are emotionally aroused, lacking awareness of the risk of HIV infection, and cannot help but do things that cross the line. After discovering that they have been infected, they regret it...

Image source: Shanghai Oriental Hospital Emergency and Critical Care Nursing Team

So, young people, if you are unfortunate enough to have unprotected sex with someone infected with, suffering from, or suspected of having HIV, how can you save yourself?

1. Use HIV prevention drugs as early as possible

Don't be lucky and think that you are not so unlucky. Maybe a few days will pass by if you escape or hesitate. In this way, you will miss the golden 72 hours of self-rescue opportunity. The so-called golden 72 hours means that after having unprotected sex with AIDS patients or suspected AIDS patients, AIDS blocking drugs can be used within 72 hours to block HIV. The best time to use the drug is within 2 hours after sexual intercourse, the sooner the better. At this time, the blocking success rate can be as high as 99%, and then the blocking success rate will gradually decrease, but as long as it is within 72 hours, there is still a high blocking success rate. It should be noted that this drug is not available in all medical institutions. You should go to the infectious disease specialist hospital in your area as soon as possible. Remember not to buy the drug on your own. It must be used after being evaluated by a specialist doctor. The drug use cycle is 28 days. During use, you must not stop the drug at will to avoid affecting the blocking success rate.

2. A negative HIV test does not mean you are not infected

Like other infectious diseases, AIDS has an incubation period, called the window period of AIDS. The so-called window period refers to the period from when HIV enters the human body to when sufficient HIV antibodies are produced in the blood to be detected by testing methods. This period is particularly difficult and will produce a lot of negative emotions and thoughts, so it is recommended to spend it with trusted relatives or friends. However, please note that the window period should be considered contagious. Please keep a good distance from people around you. Daily hugs, conversations, meals, etc. will not affect it. Avoid contact between blood/body fluids and damaged wounds. The length of the window period is related to the detection method used. The current authoritative statement is 14 to 21 days.

3. AIDS is a chronic disease

If you are unfortunately infected with HIV, don't feel like you have been sentenced to death. After more than 30 years of efforts, the treatment of AIDS has made great progress. Early and standardized treatment can keep the HIV virus concentration in the blood of AIDS patients at a low level. AIDS is like chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Although it is incurable, as long as the patient insists on taking medicine regularly and quantitatively every day, the disease can be effectively controlled and the individual's life cycle can be extended. In addition, AIDS patients need to regularly undergo CD4 lymphocyte testing and viral load testing, as well as complete tuberculosis screening at least once a year. In addition, there is another very important message that everyone should know: in our country, antiviral treatment for AIDS is free.

Author: Zhu Jiajin Jing Shanghai Oriental Hospital Emergency and Critical Care Nursing Team

Editor: Yang Zhi

Review: Sun Feng

Produced by: China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

This article comes from the online health science popularization activity "Preventing and Controlling Infectious Diseases, You and I Participate Together". It focuses on the themes of infectious disease prevention and control such as "new coronavirus pneumonia", "AIDS", and "hepatitis B", providing the public with practical and easy-to-understand protective knowledge.