Clinic giving free facials to raise funds for girl who got HIV at dentist
Some of you may have read the story of a Malaysian girl & another whom doctors think might have contracted HIV from their dental treatments. ( Story here & also reproduced in comment below http://www.asiaone.com/print/Health/News/Story/A1Story20101108-246277.html ).
The clinic mentioned in the article, Dr Tan Kok Kuan, is currently raising funds for her by giving away free facials. I’m reproducing the email Dr Tan has sent to me here, so that you can read his invitation for yourself, and contact his clinic if you are interested. I had a chance to meet & lunch with Dr Tan too, where we exchanged lots of interesting info & ideas . I personally think it’s wonderful that profit-driven clinics are also getting involved in the business of caring for patients both financially & physically. :
From: kok kuan tan <>
To: mathia lee <mathialee@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 08:32:26
Subject: Re: hihi mathia,
yes. because of the good response we are extending the donation drive till end
dec.
we will also be working with world vision to see what else we can do to help
less fortunate women and children.did not go for the aids conference but will be participating in a think tank to
educate heterosexual men and women on hiv/aids.kk
—– Original Message —-
From: kok kuan tan <>
To: mathia lee <mathialee@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 26 October 2010 15:02:40
Subject: hiHi!
Thanks for the lunch company and great conversation.
Forgot to tell you that we are having a fund raising drive in November for that
poor girl I told you about.Details below.
Hope to count on your support and help spread the word.
Thanks!
kk
JOIN US FOR A MONTH OF CHARITY AND LOOKING FABULOUS!
For the entire month of November, Dr. Tan & Partners @ OUB is giving away
medical facials worth as much as $350 absolutely free!
This is part of our efforts to raise funds for one of our patients (read her
story below) and to commemorate World AIDS Day which falls on 1st December 2010.
Choose from our selection of top grade medical facials including Acne control,
Anti aging, Pigmentation Treatment and Brightening. Lie back, enjoy and let us
pamper you!
A donation, however big or small, after the treatment will be much appreciated.
Proceeds will go to helping S get back on her feet.
Help us spread this message to your friends and family. Help us put some hope
back into a person’s life.
Call 65366418 for an appointment now!
Or get an appointment via our website at www.drtanandpartners.com
The story of Ms. S
I saw S in October this year. I can’t tell you her name because she has HIV.
S is in her 20’s. She has never had a boyfriend. She has never had sex. She has
never used drugs. So how did she get HIV? She got infected through a visit to
the dentist in her hometown. She was trying to save some money for her elderly
grandmother so she looked for the cheapest option to fix her toothache. Little
did she know about the terrible consequence of this until she went for her Work
Permit renewal where she was required to undergo a HIV test. That was how she
found out the awful truth.
Now she has lost her job. She has no way to take care of her elderly
grandmother. She has lost all hope for a family of her own. She has lost all
hope for her future.
There is no cure for HIV. But it is a controllable, albeit chronic, disease.
With the proper medical care, S can lead a long and healthy life.
I hope that you can join me in helping S get back on her feet again and take
that first step on her long and arduous road to a life as normal as she can makeit.
Thank you for your generosity.
Dr Tan Kok Kuan
World AIDS Day
1st December 2010
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Health @ AsiaOne
How did we get HIV?
‘Clean living’ and virgins, but two M’sians get shock when they test positive for Aids virus. -TNP
Mon, Nov 08, 2010
The New Paper
By Ng Wan Ching
TWO young Malaysians working here have tested positive for HIV in the last four months.
When doctors did a risk assessment test for them, it was found that they could have been infected at the dental clinics they visited in the year before they were tested for HIV.
Both their cases sound eerily similar and both were tested positive at an anonymous HIV testing clinic here.
They both claim to be virgins, are not drug abusers and said they never had any blood transfusions before.
The only thing they had in common was the dental treatment they sought.
One of them was tested in October.
The woman, who is in her 20s, had gone for her health check-up to renew her work permit. When the results came back, she was shocked.
Her HIV test was positive.
HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. In its most advanced stages, the infection is referred to as Aids. It was a bolt from the blue, said a relative who had gone with the young woman for the heath check-up. She had lived with the relative in Singapore.
The shock was so great, they both cried and cried.
“She said she felt that her world was shaking,” said the relative. Then, denial set in.
“It just made no sense to us. How could she have got it? Where could she have got it from? She has never even had a boyfriend,” said her relative.
They went for a second test to confirm the first test result. Unfortunately that was also positive. She has since returned to her home country and her relative said her biggest fear now is that people will find out about her infection and stigmatise her.
“She’s putting up a brave front, but I know she is feeling very fragile inside.
“This is through no fault of her own. She is a very normal girl. Never had a boyfriend, lives a very simple life,” said the relative, who cried when she spoke to The New Paper on Sunday.
In February, she had visited dentists here and in her home country for teeth extraction.
“The doctor told us that if the dental equipment was not cleaned properly and the earlier patient was HIV positive, it could spread that way,” said the relative, who has since been tested for HIV. Her test result was negative.
Dr Tan Kok Kuan from Dr Tan and Partners on Unity Street, Robertson Walk, was the doctor who tested her. As it was an interesting case with a rare mode of transmission, he brought it up with his colleagues.
To his surprise, one of his fellow doctors then told him that he had tested a similar case in August.
This time it was a young man, 20, who had also come for a second round of testing. He had also discovered his infection after going for a health check-up to renew his work permit.
“He also came with a relative. They, like my patient and her relative, were in denial. They thought the first doctor got it wrong,” said Dr Tan.
Unfortunately, it was also positive the second time round. Like the young woman, the young man had also claimed he was a virgin, never had any girlfriends, was not a drug abuser and never had any blood transfusions.
But he had visited a dentist in Malaysia for teeth extraction before his HIV test. The dentists in the two cases were in different states. He has also since returned to his home country. Dr Tan has notified the Ministry of Health (MOH) about these two cases.
An MOH spokesman said that all HIV cases have to be notified to the MOH by law.
“The ministry is aware of these two recent cases,” said the MOH spokesman.
They are looking into whether it is possible that the transmissions could have happened as a result of a visit to a dentist and have no comments at the moment.
Dr Tan admitted that it is possible the patients were lying about their sexual status.
“Absolutely. But how many times can you ask them about it?You just have to take their word for it,”he said.
There is also something called “clinical acumen” he added.
“You do get an impression of whether they are sexually active or not. It’s nothing scientific, but you can see if someone is naive about such issues,” he said.
Such cases are also hard to prove.
“It’s difficult to confront the dentists as they may turn around and say you are defaming them. I do not know how these cases will be handled by the authorities,” he said.
>> Next
Fund raising
He was so touched by his patient’s plight that he has kicked off a fund-raising effort to raise money for her medical needs.
Said Dr Tan: “I felt that she is an innocent party in all of this. It’s also a good opportunity to let people know that it can happen to anybody. It’s not something that only happens to men who visit prostitutes.”
He has sent an e-mail to potential donors describing her plight.
Part of the e-mail reads: “Now she has lost her job. She has no way to take care of her elderly grandmother.
She has lost all hope for a family of her own. She has lost all hope for her future.
“There is no cure for HIV. But it is a controllable, albeit chronic, disease. With the proper medical care, she can lead a long and healthy life. “I hope that you can join me in helping her get back on her feet again and take that first step on her long and arduous road to a life as normal as she can make it.”
Dr Tan is offering a medical facial treatment worth $350 for any amount donated to his patient.
“I’m hoping this will encourage people to give generously,” he said.
He is not doing the same for the male patient as he was not the doctor who saw him.
“And I only heard of his case through another doctor,” he said.
Previous <> Next
Get HIV from dentist? Possible but very rare
WHAT are the chances of your getting a HIV infection from going to the dentist? Extremely low.
In the US, people often ask if their doctor or dentist happens to be HIV positive, do they present a risk of transmitting the infection to their patients.
According to the The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, such a scenario, though possible, is extremely rare.
Medical experts emphasise that the careful practice of infection control procedures, including universal precautions, protects patients as well as health care providers from possible HIV infection in medical and dental offices.
Universal precautions in medicine refers to the practice of avoiding contact with patients’ bodily fluids, by means of wearing nonporous articles such as medical gloves, goggles, and face shields.
In 1990, the CDC reported on a HIV-infected dentist in Florida who apparently infected some of his patients while doing dental work.
Studies of viral DNA sequences linked the dentist to six of his patients who were also HIV-infected.
But the CDC has been unable to establish how the transmission took place.
Despite this one isolated case, further studies of more than 22,000 patients of 63 health care providers who were HIV-infected have found no further evidence of transmission from provider to patient in health care settings.
So don’t be alarmed and stop seeing your dentist.
All dentists here follow Ministry of Health guidelines with regard to equipment care.
“Patients don’t use the same cups. All the cups are disposable. The saliva ejectors are also disposable. Everything that is not disposable is put into the autoclave,” said Dr Nicholas Ghows who has a clinic in Liat Towers.
An autoclave is a device to sterilise equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam at 121 deg C or more, typically for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents.
“The only thing the patients share is the chair. The risk of getting HIV from dental treatment is negligible,” said Dr Ghows.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
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Hey this is really meaningful, thanks for spreading this Mathia! Did you go for the facial yourself too?
hahhah i kinda felt paiseh ……