Good Morning Bloggers. I am still hanging In there in my HIV class. The work is really starting to pile on. The good thing though is the fact that I am still very interested in everything that we have to do, therefore the work does not much like work all the time. Well this week our question of the week was asking student how we felt about the University sharing a student’s results with other students because the student tested positive for HIV and was still having unprotected sex with other students. The question was a good one and it got me to thinking. Then I wondered just how many people at UCF may actually have HIV or AIDS. So I researched it and although I was not able to find UCF’s specific statistics I was able to at least able to see what the stats are for Florida.
Did you know?
In Florida alone in the year 2006 there were 5,550 Floridians who became infected with HIV. The estimated amount of people that became infected in 2006 was every 36.4 out of 100,000 and they ranged from ages 13 and up. This is 60% higher than the 22.8 of every 100,000 people or the national rate. Can you believe it Florida’s rate of infection is way out of hand. In Florida since 1997 until 2006 statistic show that 37,184 Floridians became infected. In 2006 72% of the newly infected were males, 48% African Americans, 33% from ages 13-29 and 58% were gay males. As far as for African Americans in 2006 123.7 out of 100,000 were infected which was six times the amount of whites at 18.8 and almost four times the amount of Hispanics at 32.0. The article said that only 14% of Floridians are African American yet in 2006 African Americans made up 48% of the population that became infected.
Now I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m an African American woman and these statistics scare me. I don’t understand why it is affecting our community so much more. I mean we have the same amount of information and protection available to us as every other race yet we continue to infect each other. This is not to offend anyone but BLACK PEOPLE WE NEED TO GET IT TOGETHER GET TESTED AND USE PROTECTION PLEASE!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Pursuit of a Cure (3rd Post)
Well my HIV course is coming along well. We are learning so much. The questions of the week are very interesting. I had the chance to sit down and talk to friends and family about HIV and I found ot how some of them were still very uneducated or very immunture about the matter. (My brother in law to be specific) I have been learning about viral loads and counts and such. I am still as excited about this class as I was when I started.
Did you know?
Drug Cocktail! They are trying to find many different ways to activate the virus and kill it. Although the virus is known to camouflage it’s self in the “resting” immune cells. Although researchers have come up with several methods they can’t agree on which method is most affective and could give them the highest probably of successfully reaching their goal of a cure. Although, finding a cure may seem like an impossible task it is still their primary objective says Douglas Richman, the director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California, Dan Diego.
What is being called a Drug Cocktail is actually a highly active antiretroviral treatment as known as (HAART), which have made the virus less lethal over the last few years. However, researchers have not successfully come up with an antidote that will successfully remove the virus from the body. Robert Siliciano of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and John Hopkins University School of Medicine who studies the replication of the virus says that when the patient discontinues the use of the drug cocktails then the virus resurfaces. See the virus usually hides it’s self for years in the CD4 T cells which usually has the ability to detect foreign bacteria, yet HIV stays in hiding for years then surfaces one day when the CD4 cells recognize the virus. Then the virus replicates with all the treatments they named from methylation, HDACs, prostratin but all of them have pros and cons.
While I don’t think that an HIV cure is impossible, I think that it will take researchers a lot longer to successfully find the cure. I have faith that it will happen one day then the only thing that will make the biggest difference will be the rather or not people are going to be will to try the drug. I know that if I had HIV and someone was offering up a cure then I would be more than willing to try it. Besides the only thing the drug could give me is side effects. Now I do not think that people will ever be open to a vaccination for HIV, I mean we have all seen the movies where everyone takes a vaccination then there is a major deadly out break or everyone turns into zombies. All and all I believe in a cure and hope they theses guts will not give up on their research and I pray they continue to have the funding. It will happen one day and a lot of lives will be saved.
If you are interested in the article it is at this address http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hiv-aids-latent-reservoir-treatment-cure
Did you know?
Drug Cocktail! They are trying to find many different ways to activate the virus and kill it. Although the virus is known to camouflage it’s self in the “resting” immune cells. Although researchers have come up with several methods they can’t agree on which method is most affective and could give them the highest probably of successfully reaching their goal of a cure. Although, finding a cure may seem like an impossible task it is still their primary objective says Douglas Richman, the director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California, Dan Diego.
What is being called a Drug Cocktail is actually a highly active antiretroviral treatment as known as (HAART), which have made the virus less lethal over the last few years. However, researchers have not successfully come up with an antidote that will successfully remove the virus from the body. Robert Siliciano of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and John Hopkins University School of Medicine who studies the replication of the virus says that when the patient discontinues the use of the drug cocktails then the virus resurfaces. See the virus usually hides it’s self for years in the CD4 T cells which usually has the ability to detect foreign bacteria, yet HIV stays in hiding for years then surfaces one day when the CD4 cells recognize the virus. Then the virus replicates with all the treatments they named from methylation, HDACs, prostratin but all of them have pros and cons.
While I don’t think that an HIV cure is impossible, I think that it will take researchers a lot longer to successfully find the cure. I have faith that it will happen one day then the only thing that will make the biggest difference will be the rather or not people are going to be will to try the drug. I know that if I had HIV and someone was offering up a cure then I would be more than willing to try it. Besides the only thing the drug could give me is side effects. Now I do not think that people will ever be open to a vaccination for HIV, I mean we have all seen the movies where everyone takes a vaccination then there is a major deadly out break or everyone turns into zombies. All and all I believe in a cure and hope they theses guts will not give up on their research and I pray they continue to have the funding. It will happen one day and a lot of lives will be saved.
If you are interested in the article it is at this address http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hiv-aids-latent-reservoir-treatment-cure
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
2nd Post (HIV discrimination)
Today I am going to discuss the discrimination that people infected with HIV/AIDS experience on a regular basis. I read articles Stigma, discrimination and attitudes to HIV & AIDS and the article HIV patients face discrimination from doctors. These two articles expresses the kind of discrimination that HIV/AIDS patients face and why. The first article basically talked about how so many people that are infected were surveyed out of 2500 people that were surveyed 27% said that they felt some sort of discrimination from health care providers; they were shunned from friend and family, and discriminated against in their communities. Apparently people make them feel inferior and go out of their ways to not have to encounter people with HIV/AIDS. There was a study that was mentioned in the article HIV patients face discrimination from doctors that said that 54% of the people in the study reported feeling like they were discriminated against by physicians, 39% form nurses and other medial staff, 32% said that dentist discriminated against them or made them feel uncomfortable, 31% form workers in the hospital finally 8% said that case workers and social workers also discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS.
Although it is illegal to discriminate against anyone because they are positive for HIV/AIDS it is still commonly done on an everyday basis. I watched the 1993 movie Philadelphia starring Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks were Tom Hanks was infected with the HIV virus. Once his employer recognized that he had the disease they made up a illegitimate reason to fire him. So he is now looking to sew his former employer for discrimination. He goes to Denzel who is a big shot lawyer and asked him to take on his case. At first Denzel refuses to do the case out of fear and ignorance to the disease. But he soon came around and took on the case but he had to do a lot of adjusting to being around Tom Hanks because he was so afraid of being infected with it himself. I liked this movie because he showed how people really treat people that are HIV positive. Of course in the movie they made Tom Hanks look so sick the entire time when in most cases people infected with the virus don’t always look that way. The movie showed both sides of the lifestyle. There was several times in the movie that I felt sorry for Tom Hanks. I hated the way people looked at him especially when he took them that he was positive.
As I sat and thought about how everyone treats people who are infected I thought of how hard it would be for someone to come forth and admit that they are positive when they know that they will start to receive the same treatment. In the article Stigma, discrimination and attitudes to HIV & AIDS UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon says
“Stigma remains the single most important barrier to public action. It is a main reason why too many people are afraid to see a doctor to determine whether they have the disease, or to seek treatment if so. It helps make AIDS the silent killer, because people fear the social disgrace of speaking about it.”
That being said I think that if we started being more open to people who are infected and as a community offer more information about the disease then communities will began to learn to except it better. I am not saying that people are not still going to have their own opinions about people who are infected or that people discrimination will cease all together. I am only saying that when people are more knowledgeable about the disease then they are less likely to shun or discriminate against people who have the disease out of fear.
If you are interested in reading more here are the websites for the articles:
Stigma, discrimination and attitudes to HIV & AIDS is www.avert.org/aidsstigma.htm
HIV patients face discrimination from doctors is www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32243.php
Although it is illegal to discriminate against anyone because they are positive for HIV/AIDS it is still commonly done on an everyday basis. I watched the 1993 movie Philadelphia starring Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks were Tom Hanks was infected with the HIV virus. Once his employer recognized that he had the disease they made up a illegitimate reason to fire him. So he is now looking to sew his former employer for discrimination. He goes to Denzel who is a big shot lawyer and asked him to take on his case. At first Denzel refuses to do the case out of fear and ignorance to the disease. But he soon came around and took on the case but he had to do a lot of adjusting to being around Tom Hanks because he was so afraid of being infected with it himself. I liked this movie because he showed how people really treat people that are HIV positive. Of course in the movie they made Tom Hanks look so sick the entire time when in most cases people infected with the virus don’t always look that way. The movie showed both sides of the lifestyle. There was several times in the movie that I felt sorry for Tom Hanks. I hated the way people looked at him especially when he took them that he was positive.
As I sat and thought about how everyone treats people who are infected I thought of how hard it would be for someone to come forth and admit that they are positive when they know that they will start to receive the same treatment. In the article Stigma, discrimination and attitudes to HIV & AIDS UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon says
“Stigma remains the single most important barrier to public action. It is a main reason why too many people are afraid to see a doctor to determine whether they have the disease, or to seek treatment if so. It helps make AIDS the silent killer, because people fear the social disgrace of speaking about it.”
That being said I think that if we started being more open to people who are infected and as a community offer more information about the disease then communities will began to learn to except it better. I am not saying that people are not still going to have their own opinions about people who are infected or that people discrimination will cease all together. I am only saying that when people are more knowledgeable about the disease then they are less likely to shun or discriminate against people who have the disease out of fear.
If you are interested in reading more here are the websites for the articles:
Stigma, discrimination and attitudes to HIV & AIDS is www.avert.org/aidsstigma.htm
HIV patients face discrimination from doctors is www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32243.php
Monday, September 14, 2009
New Comer
Hello all, my name is Steele this is my first time blogging but I am looking forward to this new experience. I am a junior at the University of Central Florida and I am a Pre-Med student. I am currently enrolled in a HIV course which has been very interesting so far. This class is the reason I have become a blogger. This blog site will be based around my HIV class, each week I will post blogs about new things I have learned in the class, new information I have learned from research and also questions that I am not able to find the answers to.
I am not a Doctor yet, therefore some of my information and questions may seem stupid to some but as my header says I am thirsty for information. I do not intend to remain ignorant about this disease therefore if you have feedback or new information please feel free to inform my (just drop me a blog). I really look forward to hearing from everyone.
I am not a Doctor yet, therefore some of my information and questions may seem stupid to some but as my header says I am thirsty for information. I do not intend to remain ignorant about this disease therefore if you have feedback or new information please feel free to inform my (just drop me a blog). I really look forward to hearing from everyone.
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