When I think about what aspect of HIV that I have taken the most from, I must think about what I believed before this course and those elements that have changed along the way. Prior to, most of my knowledge was limited to the scientific fundamentals. What I did not understand is why in the twenty fist century when we had a cure or vaccine for nearly anything, was there not something to prevent the inevitable fate of AIDS? This is where this class comes into play. With all of the information from the first hand documentaries, diaries, and textbooks I've found that one of the most influential factor behind the AIDS epidemic is government. The future of AIDS and those living with it depends on the funding, law passing, prevention, education, research, and many more as the list goes on and on. It essentially is because of the government and their inability to mobilize that we do have an AIDS epidemic. It is because of their standards and personal morality (i.e Jessie Helms, President Reagan) that stigma exists so publically. It shows me that while the science regard is incredibly important, it is just as important to follow policies in government in respect to AIDS since its role is so key to the allocation and progression of medicine.
Did You Know...??
While in class we have learned about CRF's or circulating recombiant forms of HIV, did you know there may be a possibility of superinfection? Superinfection or otherwise known as reinfection, occurs when an already HIV positive person acquires a second different strand of HIV after establishing the existence of the first strand. Superinfection is less common to interpret and often confused with co-infection. Co-infection is when a person acquires two different strands of HIV from multiple partners simultaneously before a seroconversion is established. More importantly though, the people MOST at risk for superinfection are newly infected or those with a low plasma viral load. Oppositely, those with detectable viral loads are less at risk. This is explained by the fact that those with a detectable load, have less cells to target. Unlike their undetectable counterparts, their antiviral immune response is much more active and does not allow the virus to sneak by so passively. (Center for AIDS Prevention Study)
Reference List:
What Do We Know About AIDS Superinfection? Revised May, 2006. Center for AIDS Prevention Study. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from, http://www.caps.ucsf.edu/pubs/FS/revsuperinfection.php. Photo: http://www.wellsphere.com/wellpage/hiv-virus-pictures.
I loved your title of the blog.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right when you say the government allowed HIV to thrive. We lost at least 10 years on this virus due to inactivity on the part of our elected officials. Perhaps that is why they move so quickly when some new threat like Swine Flu enters the picture. They don't want to appear as if they are doing nothing. And yet, they are doing nothing for HIV. Each year they cut the funding to things like the Ryan White Care Act, forcing more people onto a waiting list for drugs and a waiting list for dying.
Very interesting Did You Know, because I wasn't aware of why. I learned something today. Thanks.