first aid(s).

I still remember that fleeting moment way back in ICC year when we had our very first lecture in HIV/AIDS, handled ever so unpretentiously and so ingeniously by the tireless Dr. Lim, with matching “Wildfire” games and mock condom demos (using a banana to represent the, ahem, thing) to boot. At the end of the session, seeing us sated and sedated with a plethora of information ranging from “retrovirus” to “non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor”, he decided it was time. He finally brought her in.

The very first HIV-positive patient I encountered in medical school.

“I want you to hold her hand. I want you to know that she is just like any one of us.”

I was one of those who readily shook hands, although deep inside still half-harboring the slightest hint of reluctance as to the true extent of such a feared disease and wondering about its consequences. Of course, textbooks and common sense would easily tell you now that you don’t contract full-blown AIDS from a mere handshake alone, but what I realized that fateful morning stretched farther than just a sheer mechanical dialogue on retroviral genetics and pathogenesis: They are simply one of us – walking, talking, breathing human beings with their own lives to live.

And now, two weeks after and nearing the tail end of my Infectious Diseases stint, I must say that the single most significant thing about this rotation was the way it exposed me, in all honesty and openness, to the burgeoning spectrum of HIV/AIDS patients and thus continued the crucial legacy left off after ICC year (History actually repeated itself when I attended the same HIV/AIDS lecture given by Dr. Lim, who also facilitated a “Wildfire” activity, this time among the unsuspecting fellows.) My rotation aptly came at a time when I was fresh off watching the blockbuster musical “Rent” with its bohemian and HIV/AIDS awareness themes. It was as if cryptic skeletons finally tumbled their way out of an invisible closet, where I had to face the reality of seeing call center agents, bank employees, massage therapists, teenage students, and even an Ateneo professor congregate in pursuit of a common goal – to confront the disease squarely in the eyes, at the same time seek timely help in the process of rebuilding the momentum of their callow youth, shattered so abruptly by the stigma of a society that fears what it does not fully know. There’s no denying the clarity of the message, though: HIV/AIDS is quickly becoming a global epidemic, and it’s closing in on us faster than we can say “PCP pneumonia prophylaxis”.

I was fortunate enough to be working alongside a bunch of feisty fellows who knew their stuff, and knew it well. This was manifest in the way the patients rendered their trust and starkly divulged even the most sensitive bits of information, without so much as a trace of hesitation. In all aspects of the past two weeks, from the wards and OPD to the pay floors, peripherals, procalcitonin lectures and PPRISM conferences, I have to admit that it had been quite an enjoyable and insightful experience. The nature and practice of infectious diseases has indeed grown on me, with its corresponding nuances and peculiarities. What initially seemed a drab, dreary realm of boring antibiotics and culture studies was revealed to be so much more with a closer, more discerning look – what with my share of exciting mycoses and unconventional TB cases, not to mention the handful of STD patients that destiny unwittingly transported to my doorstep.

And by bringing to fore the clarion call of giving first “aid” to “aids”, I thank the world of Infectious Diseases with all my heart for these unwritten lessons, and for igniting in my head the rallying cry of such a relevant endeavor.