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SINGAPORE: He had met the articulate and charming woman at a club. And because she appeared to be in the pink of health, Jonathan (not his real name) thought it would be safe to have unprotected sex with her.
He ended up paying a heavy price for his ignorance. The woman had HIV, and had passed it on to him.
According to general practitioner Dr Joyce Liang, who deals with HIV patients, such cases are not uncommon. Her clinic, Anteh Dispensary along Geylang Road, is one of seven clinics in Singapore offering anonymous HIV testing.
Many people still have certain misconceptions about HIV, according to doctors TODAY spoke to.
And these misconceptions could be the undoing of many.
"In this instance, the patient thought that it would be safe to have unprotected sex with the woman as she wasn't a paid sex worker," said Dr Liang.
Dr Tan Hiok Hee, head of DSC Clinic and a senior consultant dermatologist at National Skin Centre, said another common misconception is that HIV only infects those who have had sexual intercourse with people of the same gender.
In reality, HIV infections are most commonly spread through heterosexual relationships, and not the commonly thought homosexual relationships or drug abuse.
Recent data from the Ministry of Health (MOH) showed that of the 218 newly-detected HIV cases in the first six months of this year, more than half of them (59 per cent) acquired the disease through heterosexual relationships.
Homosexual and bisexual transmission account for 33 and six per cent of the total new HIV cases respectively, while intravenous drug use accounted for only 2 per cent of the cases. At the end of June this year, there were 4,159 HIV-infected Singaporeans, according to MOH.
Many people also think symptoms such as weight loss and diarrhoea means you are HIV-positive. The truth is that being HIV-positive can be asymptomatic, especially during the first few years, said Dr Tan.
"Even doctors can't tell whether a person is HIV-positive by looking at them," added Dr Liang. She said that symptoms can also be vague and appear to be similar to common ailments such as fever or rash.
Dr Tan said that even without treatment, HIV typically takes an average of 10 years to progress to Aids, the point whereby the person's immune system becomes too weak to fight off infection.
In Singapore, most of the patients were in the late stages of HIV when they were diagnosed. According to MOH, more than half of the new cases detected in the first half of the year were in the later stages.
The Health Promotion Board (HPB) recommends at-risk individuals go for regular HIV testing so that it can be detected at an early stage.
"Having HIV does not mean death. There are treatments available that can control the infection and keep the person in good health," said Dr Tan.
That said, Dr Liang warned about throwing caution to the wind and being complacent.
"Even with current drugs that can control the infection, who would want to have that spectre of HIV hanging over them? It is always important to keep your guard up," she said.
The HPB recommends sticking to the ABCs of HIV prevention: Abstinence from casual sex; Be faithful to one sexual partner; Correct and consistent use of condoms during sexual intercourse.
Get tested if you:
- Have had casual sex partners
- Have had more than one sex partner
- Have had unprotected sex
- Have had sex with someone whose health status you are unsure of
Here's what to expect at an anonymous screening:
- You will be given an anonymous questionnaire, and private pre-test counselling.
- You will undergo an OraQuick test, where a swipe is taken from the inside of your mouth.
- You will get your result after 20 minutes, and receive post-test counselling.
- If the result is positive, you will have to go through a second full blood examination. Your doctor will then advise you to seek medical consultation at the Communicable Disease Centre, where trained doctors and counsellors will attend to you.
- A negative test may not mean that you are not infected. If the test is done within the window period - from one to three months after exposure to the virus - antibodies for HIV may not have developed sufficiently to be detected yet. You will need to do another test after three months to be sure.
For more information, visit www.letstalkaboutsex.sg/whatsmyrisk/.
- TODAY/yb
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