Prompt treatment after HIV exposure just a widget away

The widget has been developed by Dr. Tony Urbina, a medical director of HIV/AIDS education at St. Vincent and Dr. Paul Galatowitsch, also from St. Vincent, with the funding of New York state’s AIDS Institute.

Starting Wednesday, the computer application will be distributed to more than 200 emergency departments all across the state this week.

Dr. Urbina said, “There’s a gap in knowledge in the health care sector about these topics. You’d be surprised at how many patients come to us and say, ‘I went to an emergency room, and the doctor didn’t know what I was talking about, and I didn’t get the drugs.’”

Application to provide adequate guidelines for HIV prevention
Described as “one-stop shopping” to PEP (post-exposure prophylactic treatment) by the doctors, the widget will provide concise guidelines about the prevention of the HIV infection and will also offer prompt treatment in case of exposure to the HIV virus through sex, drug use, or blood contact.

The computer application will facilitate the screening process for the users by which they can determine whether they need to undergo the treatment or not. It will also provide relevant information about the 28-day course of antiretorviral drugs and will link to consent forms in as many as 22 languages.

The application makes it clear that PEP treatment prevents the further mutation of the infection, and the immune system of the body gets in a better position to prevent the virus from entering the bloodstream.

To ensure that the PEP treatment prevents the HIV infection, it is best if the treatment is given within 36 hours of the exposure. However, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has bracketed the time limit at 72 hours.

It has been medically established that people can greatly reduce the risk of HIV infection by 80 percent if the drug treatment begins immediately after exposure.

Widget the source of reliable information
Providing the latest medical recommendations, the homepage of the widget will also feature a counter that keeps an eye on the number of new HIV infections in the state.

Dr. Urbina informed that instead of searching for information about AIDS on different sites online, “all of the information is right there at your fingertips, and it’s also reliable and updated by the State Health Department.”

The application also assures that high priority would be given to those patients who have just been exposed to the HIV infection, so the first dose of antiretroviral drugs would be given to them as soon as possible.

“Here in our emergency department, when we educate our staff,” Dr. Urbina said, “we say, ‘Treat this as a gunshot wound in terms of urgency.’”