A study to be published in the April edition of the Journal of Infectious Disease reveal that HIV transmissions occur when the newly infected people are unaware about their HIV status. This study was conducted by Dr. Mark Wainberg, director of the McGill AIDS Centre and his team.
This study was presented at an AIDS symposium at Montreal. Dr. Wainberg undertook his research on 2,500 HIV patients over a period of eight years in many clinics in Montreal. His work has raised questions on treatment of unknown sources of infection which includes mass screening and antiretroviral therapies.According to Wainberg and his team, people are more likely to transmit the infection during the initial stages than the chronic stages. He also says that around 30% of HIV infected people are not aware of the fact that they are infected. Hence it becomes an uphill task to identify them.
Michel Roger, the co-author of this study calls this group who are unaware about their HIV status as ‘walking transmission bombs’. Around 40 million people are affected by this disease across the globe and around 60,000 are infected in Canada.
Source-Medindia
JYT
