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HIV Tales from my diary -Tale21
Even Twenty years after the discovery of HIV, there was still no vaccine. A vaccine trial did fail in 2003. This was, an envelope vaccine ,aimed at stimulating neutralizing antibodies and it was unable to protect against infection ,in phase 3 trials. Despite this failure more than 20 HIV vaccines ,designed to stimulate T-cell responses ,were being developed. The world was worried “Will any of them work?”
The medical fraternity, in countries like ours ,however,were still struggling ,to get a strong foothold ,even ,in diagnostics. I am reminded of one ,Dev Raj from Pathankot. Dev Raj was in his mid fifties having a good Bussines, a happy family and was well settled in life. His health , however , was showing not so good signs. Loose motions , fever , some glands etc were bothersome symptoms specially after the local doctors were unable to manage his health. One of his distant relation working as a resident in Dayanand Medical College , asked him to travel down to Ludhiana, so as to ensure ,a proper diagnosis and treatment for his falling health. Extensive diagnostic evaluation ,led to a suspicion of a type of malignancy. The word ” Cancer” becomes scarier, if it descends to personal levels. Dev Raj was dejected , depressed and felt defeated. He was aware of side effects of cancer treatment in terms of both money and side effects. It was with this awareness ,that he came back home and there started a search for treatment by alternative medicines. Assurances by the practitioners of alternative medicines remained like wishes which were not horses. Back to allopathy, Dev Raj now went to a smart GP of his own town. The GP turned out be real smart and looked at his ailment from new and fresh angles. He was not overawed ,by the labeled diagnosis ,of and by a , tertiary care teaching hospital. His out of the box thinking ,took the actual disease out of box. He could detect HIV in him. But his smartness buck stopped there. Now a search for HIV specialist was on. It was ,at this point ,that the so called ” Cancer patient” ,landed in my clinic. This was 14 years ago. Today Dev Raj is once again leading a happy and healthy life. His story of “from rags of ill health “to “riches of good health ” is now history for me. Thanks to the smart GP and the antiretroviral drugs. I can not imagine any doctor can miss the diagnosis of HIV these days, after so much awareness about the disease. It’s been thirty four years ever since the medical world was introduced to the virus, after all.
I am , however a fool ,who keeps on living in a paradise of his own thoughts.
The medical fraternity, in countries like ours ,however,were still struggling ,to get a strong foothold ,even ,in diagnostics. I am reminded of one ,Dev Raj from Pathankot. Dev Raj was in his mid fifties having a good Bussines, a happy family and was well settled in life. His health , however , was showing not so good signs. Loose motions , fever , some glands etc were bothersome symptoms specially after the local doctors were unable to manage his health. One of his distant relation working as a resident in Dayanand Medical College , asked him to travel down to Ludhiana, so as to ensure ,a proper diagnosis and treatment for his falling health. Extensive diagnostic evaluation ,led to a suspicion of a type of malignancy. The word ” Cancer” becomes scarier, if it descends to personal levels. Dev Raj was dejected , depressed and felt defeated. He was aware of side effects of cancer treatment in terms of both money and side effects. It was with this awareness ,that he came back home and there started a search for treatment by alternative medicines. Assurances by the practitioners of alternative medicines remained like wishes which were not horses. Back to allopathy, Dev Raj now went to a smart GP of his own town. The GP turned out be real smart and looked at his ailment from new and fresh angles. He was not overawed ,by the labeled diagnosis ,of and by a , tertiary care teaching hospital. His out of the box thinking ,took the actual disease out of box. He could detect HIV in him. But his smartness buck stopped there. Now a search for HIV specialist was on. It was ,at this point ,that the so called ” Cancer patient” ,landed in my clinic. This was 14 years ago. Today Dev Raj is once again leading a happy and healthy life. His story of “from rags of ill health “to “riches of good health ” is now history for me. Thanks to the smart GP and the antiretroviral drugs. I can not imagine any doctor can miss the diagnosis of HIV these days, after so much awareness about the disease. It’s been thirty four years ever since the medical world was introduced to the virus, after all.
I am , however a fool ,who keeps on living in a paradise of his own thoughts.
What happened with Hardeep Singh in 2017 ( fourteen years later then Dev Raj Saga) outsmarted my thinking and showed my ignorance about ignorance of others in medical field. Doctors still miss the diagnosis by yards.
Like Dev Raj , even Hardeep was suffering. He had fever which was refusing to bow down to best of doctors , medicines and a long list of investigations.
September 2016 to June 2017 was a running period for Hardeep’s family. Jammu today , Srinagar tomorrow, one day to Jalandhar , other to Chandigarh. They were running helter and skelter and were getting out of steam. The pause came ,through ,once again a smart GP ,taking the bull by its horns afresh. Lo , behold your breath, the culprit in Hardeep’s body was also HIV. A Dev Raj story replayed.
I am ashamed of the evaporation of the thirst for knowledge amongst our own folks.
Why do we still waste nine months ( in this much time a human being can his or her progeny ) in diagnosing a simple infection ,which is totally manageable ,these days.
I wish the buck stops here. No Dev Raj or Hardeep has to run from anywhere to anywhere. Let no doctor miss HIV , let history be not repetitive.
Rakesh Bharti
Like Dev Raj , even Hardeep was suffering. He had fever which was refusing to bow down to best of doctors , medicines and a long list of investigations.
September 2016 to June 2017 was a running period for Hardeep’s family. Jammu today , Srinagar tomorrow, one day to Jalandhar , other to Chandigarh. They were running helter and skelter and were getting out of steam. The pause came ,through ,once again a smart GP ,taking the bull by its horns afresh. Lo , behold your breath, the culprit in Hardeep’s body was also HIV. A Dev Raj story replayed.
I am ashamed of the evaporation of the thirst for knowledge amongst our own folks.
Why do we still waste nine months ( in this much time a human being can his or her progeny ) in diagnosing a simple infection ,which is totally manageable ,these days.
I wish the buck stops here. No Dev Raj or Hardeep has to run from anywhere to anywhere. Let no doctor miss HIV , let history be not repetitive.
Rakesh Bharti
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