While the training session this week was great, I was struck by one of the instructors who still seemed to hold on to many of the old notions about HIV which perpetuated the stigma patients faced on a daily basis. I must also admit that I am too young to really remember, beyond what I’ve read, the era when HIV-infected patients were shunned from society. In his lecture on epidemiology he spent 5-10 minutes discussing the potential for transmission through swimming pools and oral to oral contact. I was completely shocked to hear any educated provider profess such a ridiculous notion. While HIV can be found in the saliva, the risk of transmission through that method is so miniscule that I would challenge him to find me even one case of transmission in that method. In terms of his comments about swimming pool transmission, I think one of our IU physicians said it best, “you would need to swim in a pool of saliva and swallow a lot of water to have the potential to contract the virus in that fashion.” My bigger problem with this statement was that it took away from the focus on the risk of transmission through sexual contact.
This will probably be one of my last independent blog posts as I expect to see the incoming students carry on the torch and narrate their experiences.
