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:
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
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.
