HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is a lot like other viruses, including those that cause the flu or common cold.
However, HIV is very different in that your body’s immune system cannot clear out the HIV virus, like it can with some other viruses.
Once you have HIV, you have it for life.
Listen in as Dr. Anjum Hasan, Summit Medical Group Travel Medicine physician, reviews the basics of HIV – transmission, signs and symptoms, treatment and prevention.
Selected Podcast
HIV: The Latest Research and Treatments
Featured Speaker:
Before joining Summit Medical Group, Dr. Hasan was an infectious disease consultant with Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. She also has practiced with the Department of Veterans Affairs Emergency Department in Gainesville, Florida.
Dr. Hasan's research interests are primarily devote to viral infections in critically ill patients. She is the coauthor of articles and abstracts that are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, including American Journal of Transplantation and Journal of Critical Care. Most recently, she coauthored an article with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention on infection through organ transplantation.
Dr. Hasan says, " Infectious disease is a diverse field that exposes me to many aspects of medicine, including critical care, general medicine, and surgery. Challenging and rewarding, infectious disease allows me to make a positive difference in the lives of my patients." She adds, "I believe in a compassionate, direct approach with my patients that allows them to partner with me in decisions about their health and health care."
Dr. Hasan is a member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and American College of Physicians.
When she is not working with her patients, Dr. Hasan enjoys spending time with her family, running, traveling, and the theater.
Anjum Hasan, MD
Anjum Hasan, MD, specializes in general infectious disease, travel medicine, transplant infectious disease, and HIV/AIDs.Before joining Summit Medical Group, Dr. Hasan was an infectious disease consultant with Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. She also has practiced with the Department of Veterans Affairs Emergency Department in Gainesville, Florida.
Dr. Hasan's research interests are primarily devote to viral infections in critically ill patients. She is the coauthor of articles and abstracts that are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, including American Journal of Transplantation and Journal of Critical Care. Most recently, she coauthored an article with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention on infection through organ transplantation.
Dr. Hasan says, " Infectious disease is a diverse field that exposes me to many aspects of medicine, including critical care, general medicine, and surgery. Challenging and rewarding, infectious disease allows me to make a positive difference in the lives of my patients." She adds, "I believe in a compassionate, direct approach with my patients that allows them to partner with me in decisions about their health and health care."
Dr. Hasan is a member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and American College of Physicians.
When she is not working with her patients, Dr. Hasan enjoys spending time with her family, running, traveling, and the theater.
Transcription:
HIV: The Latest Research and Treatments
Melanie Cole (Host): HIV virus is a lot like other viruses, including those that cause the flu or the common cold. However, HIV is very different in that your body’s immune system cannot clear out the HIV virus. To find out more about this today, my guest is Dr. Anjum Hasan. She specializes in general infectious diseases, travel medicine, transplant infectious disease, and HIV/AIDS for Summit Medical Group. Welcome to the show, Dr. Hasan. Tell us a little bit about the HIV infection and what’s going on today.
Dr. Anjum Hasan (Guest): Hi, thank you. Yes, HIV is a virus that causes HIV infection, and it’s a very controllable virus. It is seen in the United States. What’s going on with HIV today? Well, we have great treatment with HIV. We have less patients who are coming down with AIDS. HIV virus infection can cause AIDS, which is defined as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. That is usually the final stage of HIV, when someone’s very sick and when someone’s HIV virus infection goes uncontrolled. Today, we actually don’t even see AIDS. We hardly see AIDS in patients who are taking their medications.
Melanie: Tell us who is at risk for HIV infection, and how is it transmitted?
Dr. Hasan: That’s a very good question. People that are at risk of acquiring HIV are people who have direct contact with body fluids from a person who is already infected with HIV, such as those who have blood-to-blood contact, semen contact, vaginal fluids. HIV is also transmitted through breast milk from an infected mother to her newborn or her infant. It’s really just transmitted from the body fluids. It is not transmitted through air. You cannot get HIV through casual contact. There has been no data or evidence showing that you can get HIV through kissing, through touching, through breathing. It’s not through hugging. It’s really difficult to get. You can get it just basically from body fluids. People who are doing drugs or sharing needles, having unprotected sex, not using condoms, who are having more than one partner and not being careful, not practicing safe sex, those people tend to be a little bit at higher risk of getting an HIV infection because HIV is also classified now as an STD because you can get it through sexual transmission.
Melanie: Tell us about HIV screening, Dr. Hasan. What’s involved in that?
Dr. Hasan: HIV screening is very easy. It’s just a blood test. It’s an antibody test. If you feel that you are at risk of HIV -- in fact, now the recommendations are if you are not even at risk of getting HIV, if you feel that you have been in a monogamous relationship, you are not doing drugs or you don’t meet any of the criteria, the recommendations are still everyone should be tested at least once a year, especially if you are low risk. If you feel that you are possibly maybe at risk, then the recommendations are to be tested more than once a year, and I would probably have you discuss that with your physician. What I personally do, what I tell my patients is that everyone should be tested for HIV if they are living and breathing, because once a year, it is recommended. Because of the treatments, they are so good now that people have lived a normal life with HIV without having any problem and do really well.
Melanie: Speak about the treatments a little bit. What’s going on in the world of HIV treatment, and how are you being so successful in keeping that many people from acquiring full-blown AIDS?
Dr. Hasan: I have treated hundreds of patients with HIV over the last five to six years, and from when I started treating HIV from the beginning to now, the treatments have become so advanced and there’s less of a pill burden and people are getting the treatment so easily that they basically don’t even have HIV when they start taking it. Their viral load is undetected. The pharmaceutical companies have made the treatments so good that once they start treatment, they feel a lot better. Their virus can become undetected, and the pills that they give are now combination pills. Instead of taking three or four pills a day, they have combined all those into one pill a day and they keep coming out with new combined one pill a day so it’s less pill burden, easier to take for a fast-paced lifestyle, and also keeps the virus from coming out. A lot of people, they tolerate much better. The side effects are much less. People are living normal lives and they are living healthy lives, as though they never had HIV. However, they are not a cure. They need to be taken every day for the rest of their life; that is true. At this point, we don’t have a cure for it, but it is as close to the cure as we can get. The best treatment is to take the medications because they stop the HIV virus from replicating in its stage this life cycle. However, if you don’t take the pill, then the HIV can re-emerge and then cause another infection.
Melanie: Speak about living with HIV. Do you expect a normal long life for someone who has acquired HIV, and are they more subject to then other things, like viruses, colds, and flu? Is their immune system at risk now?
Dr. Hasan: Initially, when someone has HIV, their immune system is affected because that is what HIV does. It is a virus that paralyzes the immune system and auto replicates on its own to take over the immune system, which is what helps us fight off infection, especially, the CD4 cells, which help fight off bacterial and fungal infections. If someone has HIV and they don’t take their medications yet, the HIV can turn into AIDS and can cause problems later on. However, people who have been taking their medications with HIV and don’t have any virus detected in their blood, they live a normal lifestyle, they go to work. They could be someone in your office sitting right next to you and you would have no idea. They tend not to be more susceptible to infection if their virus is controlled. They tend to be the same as the general population. However, there has been some data showing that HIV patients have shown a little bit more susceptibility to certain malignancies and to cardiac diseases. They are monitored a little bit more closely for that, whether they’re on the medication or not. Obviously, if you’re on the medication, you will have a lesser chance of getting those diseases. As far as getting diabetes, high blood pressure, that’s still fair game whether you had HIV or not. The HIV, if you have it uncontrolled, will cause higher prevalence of getting those infections and diseases. However, if it’s controlled, then whatever your gene is, whether you are predilected to have them or not is still the same as if you didn’t have HIV. Yes, basic answer is yes, they live a normal life. Yes, they’re monitored more closely. Yes, they go to work. A lot of them you can’t even tell by looking at someone whether they have HIV or not. They exercise. They go out. They enjoy their lives. They have a great lifestyle, as long as they are taking their medication.
Melanie: Speak about prevention a little bit and give us your best advice for preventing HIV in the first place.
Dr. Hasan: The best prevention is to have safe sex, basically. I recommend always use a condom, especially if you are out and about and you are having sex. My recommendation is to use a condom. I always promote that, using condoms, safe sex. There are pills also available now. It’s been FDA-approved that we can prevent HIV through using Truvada. If you are having sexual activity with a partner who has HIV and you don’t. You can be evaluated by me or an HIV specialist to see if you qualify for that. There has been data that has helped prevent acquiring HIV in someone who doesn’t have it who is having sex with someone who does. There is also recommendations if you do do IV drugs, we recommend try to stop and not to share needles. Sharing needles, using someone else’s needle, you can acquire HIV through the blood that may have been left on that needle. If you have HIV and you want to breastfeed, we recommend not to only because it can be transmitted to the baby. Those are basically it. Preventing HIV through sexual transmission, use a condom. If you’re already having sex with someone who has HIV, ask your HIV physician to see if you qualify for Truvada. Then always try to avoid sharing needles if you are doing drugs, if you can’t stop altogether. Then breast milk, we try to avoid having moms feed their infants with breast milk if they have HIV. We do recommend that they talk to their HIV physician prior to doing that.
Melanie: Dr. Hasan, in just the last minute, tell the listeners why they should come to Summit Medical Group for their HIV infection care.
Dr. Hasan: We have the highest, best quality of care here for HIV. All of us have a lot of experience. I have seen hundreds of patients over the last six years, from HIV all the way to AIDS. I have had great success in treating them and a great rapport with my patients. I give them positive outlook in life because I know it’s very difficult to be diagnosed with HIV as the information is still very skewed out there, especially when you go on the Internet. However, this is a very treatable disease. A lot of people live a normal life. I have a lot of HIV patients who travel, who enjoy their family life, who enjoy the holidays, who are doing really well, who have been taking their one pill a day. I try to give them the one pill a day if; hopefully they qualify. There’s been so many advancements to the care of HIV that, really, it’s not even an issue anymore. I would recommend that if you have HIV to come see me. I would be more than happy to help you. I would give you a different outlook in life. We could go over the options. And it’s not a death sentence. A lot of people think when they come to me and see me that they have HIV. It is not a death sentence, not anymore. The advances the pharmaceutical companies have made with the drugs is phenomenal. I can tell you from personal experience from treating so many patients, they are doing very well.
Melanie: Thank you so much, Dr. Anjum Hasan. You’re listening to SMG Radio. For more information, you can go to summitmedicalgroup.com. That’s summitmedicalgroup.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great day.
HIV: The Latest Research and Treatments
Melanie Cole (Host): HIV virus is a lot like other viruses, including those that cause the flu or the common cold. However, HIV is very different in that your body’s immune system cannot clear out the HIV virus. To find out more about this today, my guest is Dr. Anjum Hasan. She specializes in general infectious diseases, travel medicine, transplant infectious disease, and HIV/AIDS for Summit Medical Group. Welcome to the show, Dr. Hasan. Tell us a little bit about the HIV infection and what’s going on today.
Dr. Anjum Hasan (Guest): Hi, thank you. Yes, HIV is a virus that causes HIV infection, and it’s a very controllable virus. It is seen in the United States. What’s going on with HIV today? Well, we have great treatment with HIV. We have less patients who are coming down with AIDS. HIV virus infection can cause AIDS, which is defined as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. That is usually the final stage of HIV, when someone’s very sick and when someone’s HIV virus infection goes uncontrolled. Today, we actually don’t even see AIDS. We hardly see AIDS in patients who are taking their medications.
Melanie: Tell us who is at risk for HIV infection, and how is it transmitted?
Dr. Hasan: That’s a very good question. People that are at risk of acquiring HIV are people who have direct contact with body fluids from a person who is already infected with HIV, such as those who have blood-to-blood contact, semen contact, vaginal fluids. HIV is also transmitted through breast milk from an infected mother to her newborn or her infant. It’s really just transmitted from the body fluids. It is not transmitted through air. You cannot get HIV through casual contact. There has been no data or evidence showing that you can get HIV through kissing, through touching, through breathing. It’s not through hugging. It’s really difficult to get. You can get it just basically from body fluids. People who are doing drugs or sharing needles, having unprotected sex, not using condoms, who are having more than one partner and not being careful, not practicing safe sex, those people tend to be a little bit at higher risk of getting an HIV infection because HIV is also classified now as an STD because you can get it through sexual transmission.
Melanie: Tell us about HIV screening, Dr. Hasan. What’s involved in that?
Dr. Hasan: HIV screening is very easy. It’s just a blood test. It’s an antibody test. If you feel that you are at risk of HIV -- in fact, now the recommendations are if you are not even at risk of getting HIV, if you feel that you have been in a monogamous relationship, you are not doing drugs or you don’t meet any of the criteria, the recommendations are still everyone should be tested at least once a year, especially if you are low risk. If you feel that you are possibly maybe at risk, then the recommendations are to be tested more than once a year, and I would probably have you discuss that with your physician. What I personally do, what I tell my patients is that everyone should be tested for HIV if they are living and breathing, because once a year, it is recommended. Because of the treatments, they are so good now that people have lived a normal life with HIV without having any problem and do really well.
Melanie: Speak about the treatments a little bit. What’s going on in the world of HIV treatment, and how are you being so successful in keeping that many people from acquiring full-blown AIDS?
Dr. Hasan: I have treated hundreds of patients with HIV over the last five to six years, and from when I started treating HIV from the beginning to now, the treatments have become so advanced and there’s less of a pill burden and people are getting the treatment so easily that they basically don’t even have HIV when they start taking it. Their viral load is undetected. The pharmaceutical companies have made the treatments so good that once they start treatment, they feel a lot better. Their virus can become undetected, and the pills that they give are now combination pills. Instead of taking three or four pills a day, they have combined all those into one pill a day and they keep coming out with new combined one pill a day so it’s less pill burden, easier to take for a fast-paced lifestyle, and also keeps the virus from coming out. A lot of people, they tolerate much better. The side effects are much less. People are living normal lives and they are living healthy lives, as though they never had HIV. However, they are not a cure. They need to be taken every day for the rest of their life; that is true. At this point, we don’t have a cure for it, but it is as close to the cure as we can get. The best treatment is to take the medications because they stop the HIV virus from replicating in its stage this life cycle. However, if you don’t take the pill, then the HIV can re-emerge and then cause another infection.
Melanie: Speak about living with HIV. Do you expect a normal long life for someone who has acquired HIV, and are they more subject to then other things, like viruses, colds, and flu? Is their immune system at risk now?
Dr. Hasan: Initially, when someone has HIV, their immune system is affected because that is what HIV does. It is a virus that paralyzes the immune system and auto replicates on its own to take over the immune system, which is what helps us fight off infection, especially, the CD4 cells, which help fight off bacterial and fungal infections. If someone has HIV and they don’t take their medications yet, the HIV can turn into AIDS and can cause problems later on. However, people who have been taking their medications with HIV and don’t have any virus detected in their blood, they live a normal lifestyle, they go to work. They could be someone in your office sitting right next to you and you would have no idea. They tend not to be more susceptible to infection if their virus is controlled. They tend to be the same as the general population. However, there has been some data showing that HIV patients have shown a little bit more susceptibility to certain malignancies and to cardiac diseases. They are monitored a little bit more closely for that, whether they’re on the medication or not. Obviously, if you’re on the medication, you will have a lesser chance of getting those diseases. As far as getting diabetes, high blood pressure, that’s still fair game whether you had HIV or not. The HIV, if you have it uncontrolled, will cause higher prevalence of getting those infections and diseases. However, if it’s controlled, then whatever your gene is, whether you are predilected to have them or not is still the same as if you didn’t have HIV. Yes, basic answer is yes, they live a normal life. Yes, they’re monitored more closely. Yes, they go to work. A lot of them you can’t even tell by looking at someone whether they have HIV or not. They exercise. They go out. They enjoy their lives. They have a great lifestyle, as long as they are taking their medication.
Melanie: Speak about prevention a little bit and give us your best advice for preventing HIV in the first place.
Dr. Hasan: The best prevention is to have safe sex, basically. I recommend always use a condom, especially if you are out and about and you are having sex. My recommendation is to use a condom. I always promote that, using condoms, safe sex. There are pills also available now. It’s been FDA-approved that we can prevent HIV through using Truvada. If you are having sexual activity with a partner who has HIV and you don’t. You can be evaluated by me or an HIV specialist to see if you qualify for that. There has been data that has helped prevent acquiring HIV in someone who doesn’t have it who is having sex with someone who does. There is also recommendations if you do do IV drugs, we recommend try to stop and not to share needles. Sharing needles, using someone else’s needle, you can acquire HIV through the blood that may have been left on that needle. If you have HIV and you want to breastfeed, we recommend not to only because it can be transmitted to the baby. Those are basically it. Preventing HIV through sexual transmission, use a condom. If you’re already having sex with someone who has HIV, ask your HIV physician to see if you qualify for Truvada. Then always try to avoid sharing needles if you are doing drugs, if you can’t stop altogether. Then breast milk, we try to avoid having moms feed their infants with breast milk if they have HIV. We do recommend that they talk to their HIV physician prior to doing that.
Melanie: Dr. Hasan, in just the last minute, tell the listeners why they should come to Summit Medical Group for their HIV infection care.
Dr. Hasan: We have the highest, best quality of care here for HIV. All of us have a lot of experience. I have seen hundreds of patients over the last six years, from HIV all the way to AIDS. I have had great success in treating them and a great rapport with my patients. I give them positive outlook in life because I know it’s very difficult to be diagnosed with HIV as the information is still very skewed out there, especially when you go on the Internet. However, this is a very treatable disease. A lot of people live a normal life. I have a lot of HIV patients who travel, who enjoy their family life, who enjoy the holidays, who are doing really well, who have been taking their one pill a day. I try to give them the one pill a day if; hopefully they qualify. There’s been so many advancements to the care of HIV that, really, it’s not even an issue anymore. I would recommend that if you have HIV to come see me. I would be more than happy to help you. I would give you a different outlook in life. We could go over the options. And it’s not a death sentence. A lot of people think when they come to me and see me that they have HIV. It is not a death sentence, not anymore. The advances the pharmaceutical companies have made with the drugs is phenomenal. I can tell you from personal experience from treating so many patients, they are doing very well.
Melanie: Thank you so much, Dr. Anjum Hasan. You’re listening to SMG Radio. For more information, you can go to summitmedicalgroup.com. That’s summitmedicalgroup.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great day.