The other morning, I was working in the office when there was a sudden knock at the door, I said please come in, and a tall, skinny boy pushed the door in. Then he said, "Hello doctor, I want to test it." ”
The boy looked very young, and although the mask covered half of his face, he could still see that it belonged to the Qingxiu type. I smiled and asked, "Why testing?" ”
The boy replied: "Unsafe behavior occurred about three months ago, so want to test to see if it is infected?" ”
I then asked, "What's the situation?" Can you elaborate? ”
The boy's expression was complicated at this time: "It's same-sex behavior, but I'm not gay, I just want to experience it out of curiosity." ”
To tell the truth, although I have heard about this situation before through the cases told by others or self-described, this time I have heard it with my own ears, and it is inevitable that there will be some shocks in my heart.
The boy went on to say: Now that he is in the third year of college, there are homosexuals among his classmates, and he himself is not exclusive of same-sex orientation, and the people around him do not seem to be exclusive, so out of curiosity, I want to experience it. The other party was a senior, met online, just chatted better at first, after two weeks of chatting, we decided to meet, that is the meeting that happened to the behavior.
"Didn't you take protective measures when you did it?" I asked.
"In fact, before we met, we were prepared, that is, we wore condoms. But who would have thought that in the process of behavior, the condom fell off and fell to the ground, and there was no way to continue to use it, so that the second half of the journey was not used. At that time, I felt that the other party was also a student, and each other also used a rapid test strip to test before the behavior, and the results were negative. The other party has also repeatedly promised that he is healthy, and from the appearance, he does not look like he is sick. ”
Then the boy said with a chagrin in his expression: "But after this behavior, I began to panic all the time, always feeling that I was at risk of infection, and I wanted to test with test strips but did not have the courage." So much so that anxiety to insomnia, now eat very little, the whole person has lost a lot of weight. He said to himself, before I also participated in the college students' STD AIDS prevention and control knowledge competition, in fact, the knowledge of AIDS is still very well understood, talking about knowledge can be said to be the head of the Tao, but when the behavior really happens, it is all thrown out of the cloud of nine clouds. You may always feel that this matter is far away from yourself, has nothing to do with yourself, and cannot happen to yourself. It wasn't until after this act that I realized that it might actually be very close to me, sometimes just at the thought. ”
I comforted: one-time behavior is not necessarily infected, because the probability of a behavior is only a few tenths of a percent, so there is no need to worry too much, and then we only need to test it and slowly wait for the results of the test side.
Then the boy drew blood at the clinic, thanked me and left. A few days later the test results came out and showed positive HIV antibodies. When I saw the results, my heart was shocked, there were regrets, there were regrets. At such an old age, because of a chance hunt, resulting in infection, the future path may become different from before, although the life expectancy after taking the drug will not be greatly affected, but psychological stress may be a greater problem.
Of course, for friends who have been infected, infection is an established fact, we can't change it, but we can change our attitude towards the facts, so we try to make ourselves peaceful and behave no differently from ordinary people without hurting others.
Later the boy came to get the results, and after entering the door and taking a seat, I gently stroked his back. Then tell him directly that the result came out and was positive. The boy did not open his mouth, but soon two lines of tears flowed down the corners of his eyes, slowly from soft sobbing to crying. I knew that any language was pale now, so I handed him a tissue and gently hugged him, trying to give him some comfort and strength.
When the boy slowly calmed down, I began to tell him what to do next. Perhaps for friends who have just learned about infection, there are two most important issues to understand: one is about their own health and longevity, and the other is how to protect privacy and avoid discrimination.
I told the boy to take the medicine regularly, maintain CD4 in the normal range, and basically not affect his life, so be sure to actively cooperate with the treatment. Don't delay treatment because you are worried about the side effects of the drug, because if you don't treat it after infection, the virus continues to replicate in the body and will always destroy the body's immune system. If the level of CD4 cells is too low, the chance of rising to normal level after treatment is greatly reduced, which can have an impact on life expectancy. And if the treatment is too late, and even serious complications may occur, it is even more difficult to treat.
On how to deal with possible discrimination. In fact, most people around them do not know that they are infected, because after being infected with this virus, they will be in the asymptomatic infection period for a long time, without any external recognizable physical signs and signs, so no one can infer which people are infected, more we are worried that others know, or we think that others may already know. So be sure to protect your privacy without hurting others and try to keep yourself peaceful and positive. Daily life and work are not contagious, so there is no need to let the people around them know their situation, so as not to bring unnecessary trouble. If you have sex with someone else, remember to take precautions.
We talked a lot later about the details we needed to pay attention to later in life, and finally the boy left with a lonely expression. I know that even though I've told him a lot, the person he really has to face is himself, and the road ahead requires him to walk slowly, and he needs time to accept and digest this information now. I can only silently bless him, hoping that he will come out of the shadows as soon as possible and gradually return to normal life.
After the boy left, I also thought about it for a long time.
Back to the topic of safe sex. I suddenly thought of a sentence: Why do we understand a lot of truths, but we still can't live this life. Probably the reason is that the boy knows everything about it, but his consciousness is relatively weak, and he feels that this matter is far away from him, and he does not know it, so far away, so close. The real problem comes when there is no regret. So remind young children that safety measures must not be forgotten at all times, and if they cause infections because of a momentary delay, it may be a very regrettable thing.
So if sex does not involve condoms, be sure to seek post-exposure prophylaxis as soon as possible, which can be a very effective remedy for preventing infection.
Regarding whether the prior test is safe: Because of the existence of the window period, even if the pre-test is negative, it cannot be proved that the other party is not an infected person. Because the window period means that you are infected with HIV, but the existing test methods cannot detect the corresponding markers. But infected people in the window period are still contagious. So the awareness of prior detection is good, but it is not safe.
Regarding whether it is possible to infer whether an infected person is an infected person from the outside: Because after being infected with HIV, the infected person is in the asymptomatic infection period for a long time, that is, there are no signs and symptoms visible to the naked eye, so it is not possible to judge whether the other party is infected by what is seen by the naked eye.
Finally, to sum up: the best way to prevent AIDS is to clean yourself, wear a condom on a date, and do not use medication (post-exposure prevention).