Irony

This week has definitely been interesting one in regards to the aspect I have found this class to be playing in my personal life. This past Friday was when I went to Miracle of Love for my HIV test. With much searching and driving in circles, my friend and I were finally able to find the quaint little household turned business called Miracle of Love. We felt like we were at some sort of private resort rehab from the looks of the outside. Once inside, the lady at the desk gave us free handouts, free condoms, magazines, and even a free DVD on AIDS and black women. We were the only ones there and waited less than ten minutes before Iris took me back and went through the drill with me. The entire process was pretty much effortless as there was no wait and even no fee! I don't know how many people go seeing as there was no inside, but I would hope and recommend this place to anyone because it is free and the environment and people are comforting and genuine.

On another note, I finally got around to watching Common Threads yesterday in the library. I had already previously rented Silverlake Life and ended up crying at the end as I'm sure most people do. What I enjoyed so much about Common Threads is that it tries to break the notion that HIV/AIDS is restricted to homosexuals. Instead, it evokes stories of all those affected, both gay, hemophiliacs, and drug users alike. Overall, the emotions that I felt from watching this movie wasn't just sadness, but anger. Much of the footage is from the 80's, the time when AIDS was just being discovered. During this time, people were unbelievably discriminated against; houses were being burned down, people were being mugged and killed, and the Reagan administration didn't even address AIDS until after thousands had died. On top of that, the administration was against sex education despite the need to inform children about AIDS based on the fact he may advocating sex. He should have been worried about saving lives.

But to now get to the point of the title of my blog for this week: Irony. I say this, because this week I found out that someone in my immediate family has been seeing someone who is HIV positive. While AIDS/HIV does exist and we have often times run into people who are positive without even knowing it, it was incredibly unexpected to think that someone I love dearly has put themselves knowingly at risk for this disease. I call it ironic because of the circumstance in addition to my enrollment in this class. Needless to say, we discussed it thoroughly and considered the risk at hand. Since my return date for my HIV results are coming up, we have decided to go together so that she may get tested as well. While none of this pleases me, I am happy about one thing: the timing. Had I not been enrolled in this class, I would not have been able to comfort or educate her in any manner besides my support really. I would not have been able to tell her about the window period, about ALL of the types of transmission, or the finite details of how the virus works.


Did You Know...HIV Risk of Different Sex Practice?


Perhaps one thing that spurred on this topic is the referral to AIDS as a "gay disease." I was interested to find why homosexuals were at such a greater risk for contracting HIV more so than heterosexuals. From anatomy and biology, we learn that the skin all over your body has different structures and makeup (stratified, simple, transitional, pseudo stratified, etc.) depending on its location. From this we can ask, why is anal sex much more risky than vaginal sex? This is because the skin and mucosa lining in the rectum has fewer cells than the vagina and can be damaged more easily (especially since things aren't meant to go in). I found statistics from the Center for Disease and Control Website that matched this inference.


This information is AIDS cases by transmission up to 2007



Type
Male to Male Contact: 487,695
Drug Injection: Male:175,704 Female: 80,155 (255,859 total)
Male to Male Contact + Drug Injection: 71,242
Male to Female Contact: Male: 63,927 Female: 112,230 (176,157 total)
Other: Male: 12,108 Female: 6,158 (18,266 Total)

From this I calculated the percentage that people contract HIV from male to male (anal) and male to female (vaginal). Accordingly, 48% of all estimated cases are homosexuals, 6% of heterosexual men, and 11% of heterosexual women. While the percentage for heterosexuals seem small, the percentage of those infected by drug use (24% total men and women) is not accounted for transmission via intercourse. Obviously, these numbers are in accordance with the fact that anal intercourse is the number one high risk behavior. Oral sex is least risky with only 4% (Avert.org). In addition, an article from About.com: AIDS/HIV claims that female heterosexuals are more at risk than male heterosexuals. This, much like the recipient of anal sex, is caused from the tearing of the mucosa lining in the woman allowing direct entrance into the bloodstream. These statistics support this inference as well as 11% of heterosexual woman are infected compared to the 6% in men.

Overall, AIDS is not a "gay disease", but rather the behavior that puts you most at risk. From a biological standpoint, having anal sex is the highest at risk behavior simply because of the skin tissue found there.

Reference List:
Cichocki, M. About.com:AIDS/HIV (2009). Retrieved Feb 24, 2010
CDC: Center for Disease and Control. (2007). Retrieved Feb 24, 2010 from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#exposure.
Picture: bp.blogspot.com/.../s320/homosexual-gay.gif

Week Four... Approaching HIV Testing

Looking at the calendar, we are coming up to the last three weeks that we need to allot for HIV test results before they are due. Although in one sense, the drive to get free testing is a little bit of a nuisance,but the prospect of having concrete results makes it worth it. I have considered today, would I even go get HIV tested if this class didn't require me to? And the answer is yes. Ultimately by not doing so, I am putting myself and others at risk and not being a responsible being of society.

On another note, I'm also coming to close to AIDS Memoir, a diary of a HIV positive black mother. It really plays of the theme of how detrimental lack of education plays on the spread of AIDS. For example, one group Catherine targets are those with geriatric AIDS. Many old people choose to be uneducated because they feel HIV doesn't happen to them but rather their children and grandchildren. They don't seem the harm in a little fling in their old age until they show up with AIDS. Many don't even get tested for it was a possibility to their poor health in old age. I found this information to be interesting as most people point the finger at the homosexual congregation.

Did You Know...You Can Get More Than One Strand of HIV??

For many of us, we assume that HIV is one single evil entity killing thousands of people at a time. But much like the common cold or flu that has multiple strands that mutate throughout the year, HIV can be divided into types, groups, and even further to subtypes!

As the diagram shows, HIV can be first categorized as either HIV-1 or HIV-2. HIV-2 is regionalized to on West Africa and is less virulent than HIV-1. This means that people living with HIV-2 have a longer time period between infection and serious illness or AIDS. While both types are spread through blood contact, intercourse, and childbirth, HIV-2 cannot be spread via sharing needles. HIV-1 is divided into groups M (major), O (Outlier), and N (New). HIV-1 group M accounts for 90% of all cases and is generally what people refer to when they say "HIV". Group M has 9 subtypes plus CRFS (circulating recombinant forms). (Avert.org).

Subtype B is found in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Australia
Subtype C is found in southern/eastern Africa, and India. It accounts for half of all HIV cases and has caused the worst epidemics

Subtype A / CRFs are found in West/Central Africa and is less virulent than C or B
Now if you didn't know that HIV had that many subdivisions, let me blow your mind a little more as to how quickly HIV likes to join and compound the problem. As I briefly mentioned CRFs before, they stand for circulating recombinant forms. This means that two virus strands have replicated together or rather had "viral sex" and created a totally new subtype distinct for that person. For example, if a person has CRF A/B, they have both subtype A and subtype B. (Introduction to HIV Types, Groups, and Subtypes).

Reference List:
HIV Types, Groups, Subtypes and Strains. Avert.org. Retrieved February 16, 2010 from Avert.org

Text and Graph 1:

Introduction to HIV Types, Groups, and Subtypes. Retrieved February 16, 2010 from
http://www.bodyandmind.co.za/healthweb/Introduction_to_HIV_types.html

Map: The Age of AIDS; Frontline. PBS.org. Retrieved February 16, 2010 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/atlas/clade.html

My Contribution

With the extra credit due date coming up, I've been considering which route I would like to take. On one aspect, money is always needed, especially to be used in advancing medications and research of AIDS. Although the minimum amount required does not mean that I need to stop there, I have turned my attention to educating the younger generation. Just from the amount of time that I have been in this class thus far, I feel like I am already learning a great deal. In part, this is due to the lack of knowledge about this syndrome worldwide (esp, among my peers). For this reason, I feel my efforts would be most rewarding attending a high school (hopefully AP so they can fully grasp the information!) to warn them about protecting themselves and revealing startling facts to shake them into awareness.I went to high school in Windermere, FL and hopefully I can get my old AP Bio or anatomy teacher to let me take over her class for a little while.


Did You Know...

The Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency (JAIDS) recently surveyed 214 African American men in California to test the percentage of them that believe in AIDS conspiracies (i.e Government Conspiracy against the Black Race, HIV does not cause AIDS, and ARTs are poison.) They found that 64% believed in at least one conspiracy, and 48% believed in more than one! This is how it divides up:

44% believe AIDS is man made
35% AIDS was created in govt laboratory
33% believe the genocidal conspiracy
17% ART are poison
22% are human guinea pigs for the government
(keeping in mind that some believe in more than one conspiracy)

Because of their beliefs, many people are refusing to take the proper medication. This means that the AIDS virus has a higher chance of spreading in addition to the person developing resistance to the drugs. It is obvious that these conspiracies are very detrimental in man's attempt to eliminate this disorder.

Reference List:
Conspiracy Theories About HIV Do Real Harm. Farrow, Kenyon. December 16, 2009. Retreieved Feb 10, 2010 from http://www.thegrio.com/2009/12/conspiracy-theories-about-hiv-do-real-harm.php.

Really? An HIV course??

If there is one thing I've noticed since begining this class, is the amount of people that are surprised that such a class is offered. However, I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt, I don't think a single one was a health major. Every now and then, I share a bit of information with them that I have learned so far and they always seem to be very interested. To me, I find that the information that is most revealing comes from the research that we do. For many of us, HIV stops at health class in high school. Simply put: don't get it. Of course, some diluted information gets in there too. Overall, it leaves everyone asking more questions and swearing they will take the necessary precautions. However, the research part of this assignment has opened up other variables such as politics (or rather policies, funding, education) and certain adversaires such as AIDS Denial.

Did You Know...about AIDS Denialism?

For the majority of us that have never heard of AIDS Denialism, examining Christine Magguire’s life may give you a better idea.

Christine Magguire had not only lived with AIDS for seventeen years, but she was also a one time activist turned skeptic. Christine’s extreme doubt of the scientific evidence behind HIV she founded two activist groups, one called Alive and Well AIDS Alternative which advocates to HIV positive pregnant women not to take the proper prenatal medication. She herself attests to unprotected sex with her husband, breast feeding both of her children, and rejecting AZT, a prescription needed during pregnancy to avoided transferring the virus to the baby. Just three years old, Christine’s second baby Eliza, died of PCP. It was AIDS related. Just 3 years later, Christine also passed away on December 28, 2008 from pneumonia. (ABC News).


In other words, Christine Magguire belongs to group of theists that believe a number of things, one of which is that HIV does not lead to AIDS. While the theory is no longer mainstream due to undeniability, these people refute all clinical and epidemiological data that does provide proof. For instance, these theories can be separated into five main ones:
1. HIV does not cause AIDS
2. Antiretrovirus Medication is Poison
3. HIV tests are flawed
4. AIDS comes from poverty and malnutrition (mainly in S. Africa)
5. The lack of westward spread goes against orthodox
(Rethinking AIDS.)

Main contributors of this group include Peter Duesberg and Henry Bauer. Duesberg was a researcher for University of California and Bauer who earned a PhD in chemistry and science studies and worked at Virginia Tech. He also has a blog which I’ve posted below along with their official websites.

1. Duesberg on AIDS:http://www.duesberg.com/

2. Henry Bauer:http://failingsofhivaidstheory.homestead.com/


While many people do not follow AIDS Denial due to the validity of science, the existence of this group is nothing but detrimental. They are convincing thousands of people to do the complete opposite of what is needed. They help block funding of medication to parts in South Africa, a country where this theory is set deep. This means spread and sickness and not only lack of education, but misguidance. Here is a website that shows a brief description and photo of people that follow AIDS denial and have since passed.

Whats The Harm?:http://whatstheharm.net/hivaidsdenial.html


Reference List:
*Death of AIDS Skeptic. Cox, Lauren, ABC News. Retrieved Feb 3, 2010, from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6558202&page=1.
*Rethinking AIDS. Retrieved Feb 3, 2010, from http://www.rethinkingaids.com/Portals/0/RaArchive/index.htm.
*Photo: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=328