KOTA KINABALU: HIV and AIDS patients will not infect the people through handshakes or kisses on the cheek, said a medical doctor.
“These hands have shaken hands with thousands of HIV patients. There is no problem,” said Menggatal Health Clinic’s family medicine specialist Dr Mohd Nazri Mohd Daud yesterday.
Speaking at the Seminar on HIV/AIDS and Women 2014 at a resort near here, Dr Mohd Nazri said he also would not mind receiving a smooch on his cheek by people suffering from HIV.
“The HIV virus also cannot be spread on a fruit that has been tainted with a small drop of blood from an HIV positive person who accidentally cut himself while cutting the fruit,” he said.
He emphasized that while the HIV virus was exceptionally strong and difficult to destroy inside a human host, it was an extremely weak virus outside of one.
“It can die within minutes outside a human host,” he said.
On claims that eating certain herbs and consuming the organs of certain reptiles can cure HIV patients, Dr Mohd Nazri said that he could only vouch for claims that had received confirmation from scientific organisations.
“There has been no (scientific) backing that consuming the organs of the monitor lizard can cure HIV patients … tests need to be conducted to confirm if this was true. There is also no scientific backing to support claims that some traditional medicine cured HIV patients. I would urge that we do not believe these claims,” he said.