The week before Thanksgiving

I signed up for my spring classes. I ended up enrolling in health care economics, health science research methods, pathophysiologic mechanisms, and intro to organic & biochemistry. So that is the spring line up.

I recently watched Philadelphia for the extra credit. I really miss the cinema from the earlier days. TV has really come a long way. It was a great movie though. It shows homophobia at its finest.

I found an interesting paper online today. It was about my did you know topic of college students and HIV.

Did you know?

"The studies...indicate a consistent pattern of low perceived susceptibility to HIV/ AIDS among college student populations across broad geographical and chronological boundaries" (Jack Turner).

The studies they did shows that college students don't really take HIV as a big deal. They aren't aware of how deadly it really is. Also, they recorded a high rate of sexual contact without a condom. It's a shame, you thought our age group would be smarter. On second thought.

You can read more about his studies at the link below:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18605471/HIV-AIDS-and-College-Students-Using-Wittes-EPPM-to-Creat-Persuasive-Posters

AIDS Orphans need education, too

This week’s QOTW was crazy. Can you really imagine people being tracked because they are HIV positive? The government is getting too involved with people’s personal lives. The question of the week was talking about the government being able to keep tabs on sexual partners of the micro chipped individual. Talk about an invasion of privacy. I really hope our society will not end up like this. I hope technologically advances don’t subject us to this type of behavior.

Did you know?

This week, I was researching my topic of HIV and schools. I found an organization that was founded in 2001 in Uganda. The Nyaka AIDS Orphan School Organization offers education to the children in the area. Of just 30 million in the city, 2.2 children are left orphans by one or more parents dying of AIDS. This leaves grandparents or older children to care for the young. It is difficult to keep the orphans fed and a roof over their head and it's even harder for them to receive an education. That is why this organization is so important. Two United States Citizens visited this place, and saw for themselves just how bad the AIDS epidemic was in Uganda. When they returned to the United States, they started to raise money with their peers and church. Soon they bought 2 acres of land where the school was to be built.




This was an incredible accomplishment for the area. Children have been attending Nyaka and enjoying themselves like never before. This is an excellent opportunity for children who have been affected by the AIDS epidemic.


Nyaka AIDS Orphans School. (2008). Nyaka School. Retrieved November 10, 2009, from http://www.nyakaschool.org/index.php

Release me!

This week we had an interesting question of the week regarding the ethical treatment of chimpanzees when it comes to testing HIV vaccines. I further researched into the topic finding some neat facts. The chimp has a 99% DNA match to a human; therefore they are often used for testing human products. However, there is controversial testing of an HIV vaccine on these primates.

“Although HIV can replicate in their bodies, chimpanzees infected with HIV do not become sick with symptoms of HIV or AIDS. Yet, those still pushing for their use have gone to great and invasive lengths – quite outside of the normal progression of the infection in humans – to attempt to force an HIV infection to progress to “AIDS-like” symptoms” (NEAVS). Even after a chimp is in infected, they will eventually shed the virus, or no longer test positive (NEAVS).

This is disgusting to me. In the infected chimps, “they do not represent how the disease infects, progresses, or kills in humans” (NEAVS). So why are we STILL testing on them? If you look at the picture posted in this blog, you can see a helpless chimp strapped down with a syringe lying next to it. This animal is so much similar to a human; can you imagine a human in its place? The researchers testing these drugs don’t care if the chimpanzee is in agonizing pain. That is the sick part. Maybe, just maybe, I could see that this testing could be a necessity because we really do need to come up with a vaccine for AIDS. But when you KNOW that these chimps aren’t any good to your research, then why continue to torture them. That is dying in vain.

New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS). (2009). Release and restitution for chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories. Retrieved November 3, 2009 from http://www.releasechimps.org/harm-suffering/research-current/hivaids-debacle/

Did you know?

**In Tasmania, the Department of Education has HIV/AIDS guidelines for students.

- There is no legal obligation for those who have been infected (or been at risk of infection) to inform the school.

- Students who have been infected by HIV should not be excluded from school or isolated within the school.

- Principals are legally bound to respect the confidentiality of that information. (Like our question of the week!)

** http://www.education.tas.gov.au/school/health/students_health_care_requirements/procedures/hivaids_policy_and_procedures

Blood is high in demand

I reviewed the slides for this week’s assignment and found something very intriguing. I believe it was about those who receive blood, 1 in 150,000 will receive an infected unit (Douglass, slide 7). I had to read that a few times to believe it. In this country, you have a 1 out of 150,000 chance that you could receive an infected portion of blood. The odds seem terribly likely. When I think of how much blood people are pumped with from car accidents or surgeries every day from all over the country, it scares me that our supply is not cleaner. With the amount of science we have at our fingertips, I would think our blood supply would be nearly perfect. I thought they would have better odds than this.

I found a story online that tied in with our question of the week, and my “did you know” column about students.

The article followed a seven year old student whom attended an elementary school in Yugoslavia. This boy was HIV positive. The article followed his social environment and how he was shunned from not only other children, but more specifically, other children’s parents.

I tried to write responses to a few students QOTW postings, but this excerpt clearly says it better than I could.

“Besides the efforts of the school faculty as well as the representatives of the Ministry of Education and health institutions, it was not possible to prevent the exclusion of the HIV student forced by the parents of his peers. Even with good basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS among the parents, irrational fear prevailed. This case implies that beside the fact that the general public is well informed of HIV/AIDS and of the willingness of the public and government institutions to help individual cases, unsatisfied awareness of this problem is the important determinant of the behavior of social groups” (Gateway, 2000)*

* http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102238531.html

Douglass, Sharon. (2009). HIV: A Human Concern. HSC 3593, University of Central Florida, Orlando.

No assignment due this week! YAHOO IS RIGHT!

This week I have been playing catch up with all my assignments. I finished watching Silverlake Life, and it made me cry! The part where Mark filmed his deceased partner, Tom, and sang "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine." He kept saying "isn't he beautiful?" It was just so sad, and Mark handled it so well. I know that I wouldn't be that brave if my best friend passed away right in front of me. Last week, a bird I tried to save out of the middle of the road rode home with me and later died in my back yard, right before my eyes. I cried my eyes out. It was so strange seeing something alive one minute, and the very next, poof. Gone. That's it. Watching AIDS literally take someones life really hit a nerve with me. We literally watched Tom waste away week after week in his tapes. But I suppose that was his plan. He really wanted to show the world the grim reality of what his life was like. That is why I am very glad he made this video. It really serves as an education tool for thousands across the country. People need to see it for what it really is.

Did you know?

Currently at the University of Florida, researchers are testing the H1N1 vaccine on patients with HIV/AIDS. The University of Florida Center for HIV/AIDS Research, based at the hospital, will use its existing patients for the study (Jacksonville.com). * They want to see how it affects people with suppressed immune systems.

*http://jacksonville.com/news/2009-10-21/story/shands_jacksonville_to_host_h1n1_vaccine_trials_for_hivaids_patients

I made it to Florida...

This week I have learned about HIV and how it affects my mother’s profession. I am currently visiting my mother in Florida, and I asked her some questions about how she has been affected by HIV. Her name is Robin, and she works in the operating room at a hospital in Volusia County. She is a certified RNFA, or a registered nurse first assist. I asked her if she has ever operated on someone who has had HIV, and she said yes, plenty of times. I asked if the nurses and doctors are notified before hand of the patient’s status, in order to protect themselves. She replied that they sometimes do know, and other times they do not. She said to think about all the people who have HIV and don’t even know it themselves. For this reason, she explains the vitality to use universal precaution. She said that not only was HIV common, but also Hepatitis C. She has operated on more people with Hepatitis C than with HIV.

I also asked my mother the question of the week, regarding letting your child go to a Halloween party. She said that she would still want her child to go to the party, because she wouldn’t want to deny that from her child. She wants them to socialize and have fun. However, she wouldn’t try to explain to her child the risks involved with a possible HIV+ playmate. A child at that age is too carefree, and wouldn’t understand the seriousness of the risk. For this reason, she would attend the party with her child. While there, she can monitor her own child, and keep them safe from possible danger. She would rather come off as an overprotected mother than allowing her child to go to the Halloween party alone.

After hearing my mother’s response to the question of the week, I thought her answer was a great one. I didn’t think of attending the party with my child. I thought I would talk to the parents of the child. My mom totally avoided bringing the HIV topic up and just took matters into her own hands in a silent safe way. *

Now let’s take a look at a fun fact for the week.

Did you know?

Su-I Hou, associate professor in the UGA College of Public Health, surveyed more than 500 students and found that they scored higher on general questions related to HIV and AIDS (82 percent correct) than items specifically related to HIV testing (72 percent correct).**

Ok it’s great that our students know about HIV, but they need to know more about testing! How do we expect them to go get tested and know their status, if they don’t have a decent amount of information on the testing itself! Yes, many know the fears and awful things that accompany HIV. Now lets teach them how to diminish it! Get tested, know your status.

**http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/08/27/study.reveals.gap.hiv.testing.knowledge.among.college.students

*Robin Harty. Personal Interview. 12 Oct. 2009.

I picked Russia as my foreign country. They used to not have any laws governing the privacy of HIV. In fact, they would publicly announce the names of people on the news as to embarass the infected and urge others to steer clear of risky lifestyles. However, in 1995, things drastically changed with the implementation of a new law.

"All information about an individual’s HIV test and its results is confidential. However, the Federal Law of 30 March 1995 does not ensure mandatory confidentiality. The confidentiality obligations of medical professionals and other persons who obtained HIV test information in the course of training or in the line of duty are regulated by the Fundamentals of Legislation of the Russian Federation on Protection of Citizens’ Health, of 22 July 1993. Article 61 of the Fundamentals specifies the list of situations in which confidential information can be communicated to third parties without the consent of the person concerned. One such situation refers to the danger of spreading infectious diseases " (HIVpolicy).

http://hivpolicy.net/topics/?id=40&page=118

Moving along to October...

So we had an eight page paper due on diseases that usually accompany HIV. I researched toxoplasmosis, and I found it to be very interesting. It is considered a parasite that many people have. They don't even know they have it living in their intestines! Sometimes I think I may have this parasite, because they can live in you, and you won't even show symptoms. I used to be very bad when it came to washing vegetables, or being very cautious around raw meat. Whenever I would work around it, I felt pretty invincible. The type of attitude of "a little dirt won't hurt." I also have a cat, and the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis spreads through cats! They* say to be very careful handling cat litter boxes, because the disease is shed in the feces of the cat. There is really no telling if I, being a healthy adult, have the parasite because the immune system will suppress the parasitic symptoms*.

*http://www.cdc.gov/toxoplasmosis/

I also went to the doctor this week for my final injection of Gardasil, a drug used to fight HPV (human papillomavirus). When I went to my doctor, there was a pamphlet about HIV/ AIDS in the exam room. I grabbed it, and took it with me. When the nurse came in to give me the shot, I told her about the big 8 pager we had due. I was pretty much just talking to take my mind off the needle. Which, by the way, hurt very bad. It was like a spring loaded needle, and instead of the hip, I wanted my arm. Ouch.

Anyway, once I got the shot, she told me to wait in the waiting room for 15 minutes before I left, just to make sure I wouldn't have a reaction to the drug. So I went and sat in the waiting room, and had my HIV/ AIDS pamphlet in my hand. On post (army base) the clinics are pretty large, with big open waiting rooms. There were people sitting around me, and I notice someone staring at me. I looked up and this woman was looking at the pamphlet, and then looked up at me. I could only imagine what she was thinking.

Now time for our fun fact of the week!

Did you know?

The University of Sydney has a policy on students with HIV and Hepatitis B. It announces that these students are prohibited from “exposure-prone” activities. Astonishing that a college could shun you from activities you enjoy, as if you’re not going through enough already.

Read the 5 page policy here:

http://www.usyd.edu.au/ab/policies/HIV_HepB.pdf