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