Dr Tyler Lim

I wouldn't be too worried if you do not have any cuts in your skin while you were in physical contact with your hands. 1) Human Immunodeficiency Virus - HIV can only survive in bodily fluids. It does not survive very long in open air. Unless you had contact with the vaginal or seminal fluid from the genitalia of the affected individual, it's unlikely were exposed to the virus in the first place. 2) Your skin has strong natural barrier against viruses and bacterial and HIV (virus) cannot penetrate through the layers of your skin to reach the vulnerable tissue which HIV thrives on.

You’re probably concerned about purine from what you’ve heard about gout. Consuming food containing a high level of purine should not affect you if you have no medical problems, such as gout or renal failure (non exhaustive list so please check with your doctor). Studies on multiple populations have found that diet is at best estimated to be a very minor contributor as risk for gout development, as compared to something like genetic factor.

There are many health screening tests that can be advisable for a healthy male in his 40s, and I don’t think there can be a comprehensive way to include every single test here. Here’s why: For example, someone with family history of colorectal cancer at an early age may require screening at an earlier age despite being healthy his whole life, versus some other male with no genetic history.

In my experience, dairy is the number one thing that people should avoid during their recovery from traveller’s diarrhoea (or infection of any form relating to the gut). Taking dairy often results in persistent diarrhoea because the enzyme breaking down lactose (the sugar found in dairy) exists on the most superficial layer of the gut wall lining. During infection and inflammation, this superficial layer is often sheared off, resulting in the inability to absorb the lactose, causing watery stools, despite having the initial infection cleared out of one’s system.

Even if you had the chicken pox in your early twenties, the answer is still a yes (or at least a maybe) for someone your age (50s and above). Although it's widely accepted that most people do contract chicken pox only once and you do get immunity against it after, the same virus that causes chicken pox can also cause herpes zoster. I’ll explain: ‘Chicken pox’ is caused by a family of viruses called the human herpesvirus. Human herpesvirus 3 (HHV-3) a. k. a Varicella - Zoster - Virus (VZV).