Busy... Busy... Week...

Man oh Man, never thought that a weeks worth of work could leave me in such a hunt for time. Between work, school tests, and book reading, I barely had any time for fun..... boohoo, as my dad looks at me and says "welcome to the real world". When it comes to this class in the past week, my life has mainly consisted of reading our book assignment which I finished just in the nick of time. From the book Surviving the Fall I learned many things about the life of a doctor, which I found very enlightening due to the fact that I'm heading into that field.

My first reaction to the book made me feel rather depressed, as a doctor we are trained to cure aliments, and this book truly showed me that I will not always be able to cure everything. I really liked how this doctor decided to open up his life to the readers and tell us everything that he was going through, that isn't something that many people would willing expose. If your looking for a good read on the insight of a doctors quest to combat HIV, this is a great book to look into. Other than reading the book, two weeks ago I managed to get my HIV test which was rather revealing and a bit awkward, I get my results back on the 5th of October. I got my test done at the UCF health center, the people there were very nice and informative, hope to have the same people when I go back.

DID YOU KNOW...

Well now that we have talked about what HIV is, and how we can contract the disease, I think its time to talk about recognizing some of its symptoms. When the HIV infects the body, we can begin to see certain symptoms that my indicate that someone should go take an HIV test. Some of these symptoms include:

-rapid weight loss

-dry cough

-fever with night sweats

-extreme fatigue

-swollen lymph glands

-prolonged duration of diarrhea

-white spots or blemishes in the oral cavity

-pneumonia

-shades of red blotching under the skin

-memory loss or depression

(Palo)

Although someone may have some of these symptoms the only fail-proof way to know whether or not someone has HIV is be tested. Many times a subject with HIV does not have any symptoms caused by the virus for what could be years at a time. Knowing some of the signs of HIV may help you in its further prevention, however the only way to completely protect yourself from HIV is to entirely avoid any activity in which it may be spread. Until next week, keep your mind open, and body safe. (Palo)

Web: Palo Alto Medical Foundation. (2009) Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.pamf.org/teen/sex/std/std/hivfacts.html

Some Questions Answered

I am pleased to say that due to the module two assignment, I now have a much better understanding of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Yes, there are still many questions that I have, which I will try to research for my Did You Know segment. Although my knowledge of HIV has increased considerably, I still feel that I don't know enough about the repercussions of contracting the disease. Not so much in the sense of what happens to the host, but rather what the person has to go through, the repression treatment, the counseling, and the feeling of being at risk. I can't imagine the thoughts of the family, and the feelings that they must cope with.

The question of the week is what sparked the motivation for this weeks blog post. Hinting to the idea that HIV doesn't only have an effect on the host, but also those that he or she impacts. That is one issue that continues to strike my heart with a serrated blade, the number of children left orphaned by the unconquerable virus that has claimed so many lives world wide. We as a people need to start taking responsibility in our actions, for the consequences may not only be our own. To condone in such behavior that could possibly be the first wrong turn on a dead end road is just so mind blowing to me, why would anyone want to take such a risk. The two main behaviors that I can't quite seem to find logical reasoning for, include unprotected sex, and needle sharing. Why take a chance with the most precious gift given to man, life.

These taboo actions lead me to my next "Did You Know..." segment. Now that we all know what HIV is and that its primary objective is to infect, replicate, and destroy T-cells, I think its time to examine how exactly someone can become infected with HIV. Now there are many myths and truths to the transmission of HIV, time to sort them out. Just this week in one of my classmates QOTW, she asks if HIV can be transmitted by urine on the floor of a bathroom, through cuts on the bottom of her feet. This mode of transmission has hence been disproved, meaning that you cannot contract HIV via urine. Urine along with many other body fluids cannot deliver a sufficient amount of HIV to be considered contagious. Some of the other fluids that cannot transmit HIV include, tears, sweat, feces, urine, and vomit. The HIV concentration in these fluids has been found to be very low or non-existent, making them safe to come into contact with when it comes to HIV. There is one more fluid that may contain the HIV virus that one may wish to be wary of, this fluid is saliva. Although saliva is not considered to be infectious there is one exception that we should know. Saliva that contains traces of blood would put you at risk for an infection of HIV, cuts in the mouth could allow the virus access to the blood stream opening the door for infection. (HIV)

Now that we got the non-infectious fluids out of the way, what fluids are considered to infectious? I would expect most people to know the answer to this question, but after talking with my family for the QOTW I realized that some people just don't know. HIV is 100% transmittable via blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and even breast milk (if in large enough amounts). This is why it is very important to practice safe sex and never share needles, a concept that I think is very easy to understand and reasonable to follow. (HIV)

Another week has come and gone, and I feel as if we have only scratched the surface when it comes to fully understanding the effects of HIV on not only ourselves, but also the effects on others close to us.

HIV transmission. (2008). Retrieved September 23, 2009. From http://www.mnaidsproject.org/learn/transmission.htm

Did You Know...

I have never been too sure exactly how the human body has become so susceptible to the HIV disease, so for this "Did You Know" segment of my blogging I've decided to trace step by step what exactly happens when someone contracts the HIV virus. Bit by bit I'll uncover the process by which the virus attacks our immune system, making us vulnerable to infection.

The HIV infection, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus that occurs in humans and who's main directive is to interfere with our immune system. Most people spend their days unaware of their immune systems functions, however when the system becomes weak or a new type of virus or bacterial infection comes along, we become sick. This is usually when we notice that our body is starting to fight off the infection, wether its through fevers or headaches we are glad to be the owners of such an immune system. When HIV infects the body, it sends the immune system into a big mess, preventing it from doing its job properly. One of the primary targets of HIV is the T helper cell, along with others. This cell can be thought of as the detective of the immune system, giving the other cells directions on what to fight and create immunity for. Unfortunately since HIV infects the detector cells, the immune system is forced to attack itself, killing the T cells in the process. Low numbers of the T cell is what leads to malfunction of the immune system making the host prone to infection.

HIV. (2009). Retrieved september 16, 2009, from http://www.epigee.org/health/hiv_symptoms.html

Still Learning

What a busy and informative week, after much research and reading for the module 1 assignment "Statistics" I have come to the realization that HIV is a much bigger, and widespread problem than I first thought. Coming from a real close family, I would say that I have been rather sheltered when it comes to knowing the problems and crisis of the world. A great example of people being oblivious the the happenings of the world is through politics, its something that we all can relate to, but may not know much about. HIV/AIDS is the same way, most people know it exists and do their best to avoid it, but never consider doing anything to help bring the disease to an end. The fact is that HIV/AIDS is a very real threat to humanity, one which would be foolish to ignore.

The module one assignment on statistics of HIV was rather startling, especially the World Clock link on the assignment page that shows the estimated number of people who are currently living with HIV. I literally sat there for about 20 minutes watching the number continually get bigger. According to that World HIV Clock, every 12 seconds someone contracts HIV, and ever 16 seconds someone dies. That means that the number of HIV cases is always increasing which is a rather frightening statistic. I was also surprised to learn that women seem to contract the HIV disease more often than men. This was a hard statistic for me to wrap my head around at first, associating the HIV disease with other demographics, but then realized that the social standards are not exactly the same for other countries as they are in the U.S. The rights of women differ country to country and are sometimes unfortunately seen as inferior to men (as if a possession) , resulting in easy spread of the disease.

After researching a bit into different organizations that fight the world wide battle against HIV, I managed to come across The Lawyers Collective. The Lawyers Collective is a law based help group based in India that is dedicated to "controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic by protecting and promoting the rights of the people affected by HIV/AIDS, through law reform. legal aid and allied services of advocacy, training and research." This organization is the perfect example of a group of passionate individuals working to protect against discrimination against HIV/AIDS positive people and sexual orientation. They continue to work to protect those already infected with HIV, but also move to protect those vulnerable to contracting the virus. (Lawyers)

This week was quite a wake up call when it comes to fully understanding the HIV disease. The mechanics of how it came to be as a disease, the statistics of who and what it infects, and what people are trying to do about it. With any luck I'll have an even better grasp on the subject matter after module two rolls around.

Layers Collective. (2009) Retrieved september 16, 2009. from http://www.lawyerscollective.org/hiv-aids

Learning something new everyday

Hello everyone, this is my first time blogging so its still a learning experience, I have a good feeling that it will be one of many during the semester. Before enrolling for the HIV class at UCF, I thought I was pretty knowledgeable when it came to the HIV/AIDS disease. To my surprise I have learned two new things about the disease in just the first week, those two things would be Thrush and PCP. Up until now I didn't know about either of these diseases, I also thought that PCP was only a drug. Boy was I wrong... I hope to continue to learn new facts about the world wide disease and how to help prevent it!