From: Why me | It can’t be | What’ve I done | Pressure | Hidden secret | Inner-conflicts | Mistrust | A broken self…

Through: All will be ok | It’s normal | Acceptance | Re-building of purposes

To:  A motivating | Encouraging self

Indeed, I truly had a journey so far. I am not going to reflect what I felt (in the past). We know how that place feels in the beginning. I will rather focus on those feelings and decisions that helped me to redefine my horizon.

I started by forgiving myself and I took refuge in Geeta, music, and all possibilities that brought positive talks and thoughts. In my case, I was privileged enough that my siblings stood by me. It was my part of karma. It however doesn’t mean that I was not under the  scanner of their questions. It wasn’t easy but in the end, true love wins.

I never regret even a second when I finally decided to start my treatment when I was just a kid and was in my early 20‘s (to mention I lived in denial for 2 years while my doctor tried to convince me- here I would say I went to a lot of pain, a child’s innocent mind but with a heavy price).

Anyhow, I have this thing that if I step out I will surrender my faith to my doctor. This was the power of my love in faith. I found a teacher, a mentor, a friend, and a guardian. For him I became his very own son, it was quite a beautiful journey of duty in emotions, honesty in love, care in silence.

I have dreams and for this, I followed the treatment and tests religiously. It was my duty and a gift for myself. The first battle won after years of patience.

The next battle was quite a challenge as it was not about me. This time I had to defeat the ”mindset”. What are the most difficult things? To find someone who won’t judge you, someone who behaves normally when I say I am positive, wish to have a partner without having my self-doubts, a tolerant society and above all a confident feeling.

What I hated all these years is to have this masked life where at times I felt- I am not playing this game anymore. I feel that I am cheating myself by identifying with different personalities. I wished simple things, a proud feeling that I am undetectable and is cool about it.

It’s been 7 years so far but I would say the battle is still on-going but what is progressive is my constant will.

What changed is that I have traveled half the world, I am right not laying on my bed in Europe, I found a soul-mate, I found friends who are like me or who wish to be like me, I now have a small family, I have people around me who are educated enough. My achievement is that I managed to bring a positive change in the lives of many people, with love. I realized that the world needs compassion and I have a lot in me to offer as well..!

I am resting my words and leave it here for you to have your own perception. I trust your decisions as I trusted my intent and my contribution for my doctor’s dream to build a healthy change through me, in you!

My part is done …

“in this moment, an opportunity”

Om !

The post TESTIMONIAL BY A PATIENT appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

First step in managing exposure is to get in touch with an experienced HIV specialist. We should treat this as a medical emergency and treatment should begin at the earliest, preferably within 2 hrs. All details of incidents should be shared with HIV specialist as soon as possible. We then carry out a detailed assessment of exposure incident and thorough evaluation of source person. If source patient’s status regarding HIV is unknown, we carry the relevant test. If results are not immediately available or results are awaited and exposure has occurred, then the best strategy is to begin prophylaxis immediately and either discontinue or change the regimen when results of the test are available. In case source patient is already HIV infected then all information about patient which includes time since patient is infected, CD4+ counts, viral load assays and detailed history about past and current antiretroviral therapy are obtained.

As of today, there are various regimens available for PEP for HIV. We select a particular PEP regimen after a detailed assessment of exposure. We counsel exposed individually on seriousness of exposure, effectiveness of PEP regimen, need for 100% adherence and regular follow up for management of toxicities if encountered. The optimal course of treatment is 4 weeks.

After starting medicines for PEP next step is follow up. Person receiving prophylaxis should follow up with the clinician at least once in a week. I advise them not to donate blood, semen or organs/tissues and abstain from sexual intercourse. In case sexual intercourse is undertaken by an exposed person, then a latex condom to be used consistently. In addition, women should not breast-feed their infants during the follow-up period. We do serological tests for HIV for an exposed person at baseline, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months with proper pretest and post test counseling.

We see it most of the times that PEP for HIV is frequently advised by doctors who are not very familiar with all the aspects of this subject. An experienced specialist is only suited to probe whether an exposure has occurred and then select right medicines to be administered.

There are thousands of stories of people who had taken PEP for HIV from us. It includes people from all sections of society. I also run a telephonic helpline to provide PEP to Health Care Workers following exposure to HIV in medical settings. We receive 3 to 5 consultation calls for PEP for HIV every week. If you unfortunately get exposed to HIV, then please get in touch with us on our consultation icon or send a mail id provided on the website, we will immediately do an emergency telephonic consultation for you and will provide PEP for HIV.

In the next article I will share information about availability of best HIV treatment in India at par with the best centers of the world.

Yours, truly

Dr Alok

The post PEP for HIV appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

In our country our centre is one of the best centres for planning pregnancy with HIV infection. HIV infected couples from all over country and abroad come to us for having healthy HIV negative child. There are various scenarios in pregnancy with HIV infection. We diagnose most of the women with HIV when they are already pregnant and go for their antenatal check up. This diagnosis comes as a rude shock to them and initial reaction is of despair and they feel helpless. Ideally they should be referred to an HIV specialist immediately for a further course of action. Any couple coming to us for pregnancy with HIV infection, we discuss all aspects related to it in significant details. We support them in the best way. Ideally a woman should come before conceiving the child so we can plan everything well in advance.

We have many such stories and I will share one of them. A couple came to us from Punjab in April 2014, Manjeet and husband Balwinder. They already had two pregnancies and unfortunately both kids did not survive after getting infected with HIV. They both were dejected. We spoke to them and assured them of best help. We went through their case history and devised a treatment plan for them. God blessed them with a healthy baby boy in October 2015. They remained in our treatment and were blessed with their second child in December 2018. Both kids are HIV negative and with children, Manjeet and Balwinder reclaimed their life and enjoying the bliss of parenthood.

So if you are an HIV positive couple or either of partners is infected then do not drop your dream to be a parent and pregnancy with HIV infection is possible and we have reduced transmission to zero if we plan it well.

In next blog I will talk about Post Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV which means if anybody has contact with HIV-infected person then there are medical interventions which if they are done in time then can prevent HIV infection.

Yours Truly

Dr Alok

(All names and places are changed in stories to protect the identity and it is shared after permission from patients)

The post Pregnancy with HIV Infection appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

HIV in majority patients affects in their most productive years of life, when they are working towards their education and careers. They are also looking for a life partner, their soul mate with whom they can navigate lows and highs of life. Many of them are already in a committed relationship. Diagnosis of HIV gives them a jolt and suddenly they are in extreme despair with no clue how to move forward. HIV infection carries so much of stigma, they fear being labeled as a person of low moral values and what not. Anybody in a relationship does not know what to tell his or her partner. Most of the time they end up breaking a relationship and decide not to get into a matrimonial alliance. The trauma of not being able to explain that what had gone awry is so much that they remain traumatized for whole of their life.

This was a typical scenario till sometime back but now with effective therapy and concept of U=U, HIV-infected person now lives a normal life. They can get married to their partner of choice. Yes, I say, it is possible to have a marriage with HIV-positive partner. So many patients came to our centre with this wish and we helped them to live a normal life. In most of the cases the partner was supportive and they had multiple sessions with us to understand how it works. We also encourage them to understand every aspect to ensure a successful outcome. I put an infected person on medicines and it makes viral load undetectable. Once virus is undetectable, we then discuss various options available to them for partner safety, having kids and complete their family.

We also have many couples who were already married and one of them was diagnosed with HIV later. They were so terrified and disturbed and were concerned about the safety of other partner and wanted to keep other partner negative. So I also supported them were also on similar lines.

So it is now possible to have a marriage with HIV-positive partner. We have many such stories but I will share one of them here, as it is something on which we can make a Bollywood movie.

Ajay, a 26-year-old boy, came to me in April 2015 from Delhi. He had Tuberculosis of lymph node in neck. I started his treatment for TB and after two months I put him on HIV therapy. He became perfectly well and joined his family business. In December 2016, Ajay told me he was in love with a girl named Neha in his college days prior to coming to me but parents of the Neha did not agree for marriage as he was from different caste and state and she was married to a boy of her caste later. Unfortunately, her husband used to trouble Neha a lot and used to beat her. She finally got divorced. He now wanted to get married to Neha. I told him it is possible, but he needs to tell her about his status. He got in touch with Neha and explained everything as I had told him. She discussed this entire situation with her family. Although Ajay had told them it is perfectly safe to have a marriage with HIV-positive partner but he insisted them to meet me for absolute clarity. So I fixed a time and explained to both families about all issues of this relation. Ajay and Neha had four more sessions with me and then got married with absolute confidence in June 2017. They were blessed with a son in December 2018 and then lived happily after with not the caption of The End but with title of life goes on.

So please reclaim your life and it is safe to have a marriage with HIV-positive partner. In next article I will talk about how to have a health negative baby with HIV infection.

Yours truly,

Alok

The post Marriage With HIV-Positive Partner appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

How Novel Corona Virus affects HIV patients, this all depends on many factors. Since HIV affects immune system, so HIV patients are more vulnerable to any infection. The most important factor is to be on regular stable therapy to maintain undetectable viral load and CD4 count as higher than possible. Ideally viral load has to be undetectable and CD4 counts should be over 500. Underlying principle is lower the CD4 counts higher will be the danger of catching CORONA infection. However, nobody can quantify the danger as it depends on various other factors.

All HIV patients need to remember that their regular therapy is their biggest guard for them and they can never afford to lower it down for any reason. So take medicines exactly as prescribed and maintain adequate stocks of your HIV medicines. We had worked very hard for our patients during this tough time and helped them in getting their regular supply of medicines.

An HIV-infected person needs to be more careful about social distancing and personal hygiene. Regarding mask I will recommend them to use N95 mask. Avoid going out for any non-essential work. To maintain a strong immune system, follow a regular daily schedule like get up on time, exercise and work outs regularly, take good diet with fruits and vegetables. Do meditation to calm your mind as it will immensely strengthen your immune system.

Your treating doctor should be available for consulting on the phone or for any emergency if need arises.

There is a lot of talk about prophylaxis with hydroxychloroquine, and there are many recommendations about it. I recommend discussing this option with your treating doctor.

We all are waiting for effective therapy to come out for Novel corona virus and we will have it soon. The best will be to have a vaccine and let us see when it will be available.

I want to announce since there are many other patients, not under our regular care and want to consult a doctor and unable to do it because of this pandemic and lock down so they can also get in touch with me on my mobile number and I will be glad to provide tele consulting to them.

They can get in touch on my mobile number: 9897265635.

Stay safe.

Your HIV Dost

Dr Alok

The post HIV and COVID appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

Delivering HIV Medicines During Lock down

To prevent spread of Novel Corona Virus, government implemented strict lock down since 22nd March. However, this period was very troublesome for HIV-infected person on many fronts. The biggest issue was that it became difficult for them to get their medicines, especially as lock down was sudden and nobody had expected this scenario. Most of them had not maintained enough stocks of their medicines for such a long duration.

We were also in a peculiar situation as our center, which is one of the best centers for HIV treatment in India and caters to a huge number of HIV patients from whole of the North India. Many patients are from interiors and remote areas living in villages. What made situation complicated as these medicines are usually available on few pharmacies and most of these pharmacies were having stock outs as it also disturbed their supply chain.

It was a genuine challenge to ensure medicine supply to our patients in this situation. We expected and acted quickly right from the start of lock down and developed models to deliver medicines to them. It was an achievement seeing that no courier companies were working. We mobilized our resources and used all networks which we had built over time to help them in getting their medicines and strictly maintaining their confidentiality.

In fact, during this period many patients were from other countries and got stuck up in India also got in touch with us as our center had all their medicines available and at a fraction of cost available in their country. Another side of same story was that some of our patients got stuck out of India and we sent their medicines through international cargo services.

This was quiet a learning experience on many fronts. The satisfaction of living up to expectations of our patients was very gratifying. I wish we continue to serve them till we find a cure for HIV.

Your HIV Dost

Alok

The post Delivering HIV Medicines During COVID appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

I get this complaint from patients coming to our centre they want information on HIV regarding Indian scenario and in Hindi language, but there are no such resources and website visible on internet, as a majority of websites made about HIV/AIDS are made in other countries, so they are in English. The share of Indian websites on HIV is miniscule and there is no website which is made by a Doctor treating HIV. So people at large in our country get no knowledge of HIVAIDS, which applies to them.

So for helping person living with HIV in India we had put a translator on upper right side of our website which once clicked will translate all information into Hindi. This way you will get all information to all treatment options and HIV Medicines and drugs available in India.

So we request all patients who are Hindi speaking, to go on different page and once that page opens, please click on translator and you will see all information in Hindi.

Our website is only website to do online consultation for HIV AIDS in India and you can do that in the Hindi language with Dr. Alok Vashishtha.

In your service always

Your HIV Dost

Dr Alok Vashishtha

The post Information on HIV Treatment in Hindi appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

When I first started treating HIV, twenty years back HIV, my main focus was on treating opportunistic infections which invariable comes as HIV infection progresses in body. There were very few medicines available for its treatment. Medicines at that time had lot of side effects and were very expensive and were not easily available in India.

With relentless efforts researchers had developed very effective medicines against HIV. As on today people taking treatment with qualified and experienced HIV AIDS specialist are having normal life spans. In fact when I write first prescription then from that time itself, I have to plan for various possible scenarios and plans which we may encounter during treatment over coming years. We think in terms of all life events like having a very active professional and personal life, getting married, having baby and old age related issues from first day of treatment and plan treatment accordingly.

So the question how long one can live with HIV, is well settled now and I will once again reiterate that with a good doctor any person living with HIV can have normal life span. So get in touch with a good HIV expert and reclaim your life.

With you always
Your HIV Dost
Dr Alok Vashishtha

The post How Long Will I Live With HIV appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.

Many of our patients will also be sharing their stories themselves on this blog and will be telling their true experiences. Their names and places will be changed just to conceal their identity but rest of the story will be unedited. We invite you also to share your story here.

There are many reasons for starting this website but foremost is to link people living with HIV to the best HIV treatment at par with international standards. If you go on any search engine and search for any source for HIV treatment then you will find many such centres. Most of them are promising treatment with tall claims and a large number of patients are taken for a ride with their money and most importantly their faith. When they reach us, it is astonishing to listen to as how  people disguising as HIV experts are fooling them and worse is that these patients cannot tell about their experiences because of  fear of  their identity getting disclosed and facing stigma, discrimination in society and intimidation from these quacks. So these so called doctors continue to rob people.

Also there are qualified doctors but not trained in HIV Medicine, which is a separate specialty. These doctors keep treating these patients very casually with no knowledge of this highly specialised field and patients believe that they are getting the good treatment.

The matter of fact is that there are a very few number of qualified and experienced HIV experts in our country and we can help you to link up with them if you are living far away from our centre so that you are assured of best treatment.

There is so much to talk about HIV, which I will be doing regularly through this blog.  In the meantime I request you to kindly go through our website and you will get very relevant information which can make real difference to your HIV treatment.

Before I finish this article, I will like to tell you about unique part of our website is that you can do online consultation directly with me regarding anything related to HIV, in a section – For Online consultation, with complete assurance of your confidentiality. So why wait when you can start right now and start your journey towards a healthy, productive and fulfilling life.

Your HIV दोस्त
Dr Alok Vashishtha

The post The First Step of Journey With HIV Dost appeared first on HIV AIDS EXPERT.