Blog #4

In this is weeks blog, I’d like to discuss about this weeks Question Of The Week question. We were asked how we felt if University of Central Florida adopted a policy that would allow a health professional or student working in the Student Health Dept./Wellness Center to disclose another student's status because of information that was received about a student who was HIV positive was having unprotected sex? My response was that I believe it would be an act of discrimination rather than it being an act of protecting its students because what good would it do to disclose one’s personal health status to the people? However, assuming that it is a male, I do believe that the student should be forced to see a doctor to get an update on how his condition is and perhaps should be expelled because he is purposely putting other students’ health in danger since he knows what his condition is and is being very irresponsible with his behavior as well. This whole process though should be done behind closed doors without anybody who doesn’t need to know. Those girls that he messed around with should be notified about the situation because they may have been infected with the virus and the student should be forced to reveal those names. Nonetheless, if I was in his shoes, I would definitely not be irresponsible enough as to sleep with people knowing that I am HIV positive and perfectly knowing that I may be infecting them in the process. I find it disgusting that someone would do such a thing and that people do do that because they are selfish and only care about their personal needs. Going back to the issue, imagine if word got around that you were HIV positive and when people looked at you they would stare at you, know that you are obviously being talked about, and when you look at certain people or person they would look the other way because they are afraid of your condition. You would have pretty much have no chance in finding any type of romantic relationship with anyone. Also, imagine if they knew as well that you were sleeping with people unprotected. I would not like the person first of all because of what they did but not because they are HIV positive. My question though is “what would revealing his personal issues and health for the safety of everyone else do?” “Would you really want to discriminate this person, which pretty much is what going on, and make everybody scare of him?” You would be ruining his social and psychological life as well as romantic life but in this case I wouldn’t care if you ruined his romantic life because this is what they deserves for doing what they did.

Did you know?....
As I was mentioning in last week’s blog, Sixty-eight of the 88 prisoners who were identified being tested HIV negative upon entering Georgia’s prisons in fall of 2005 but later tested positive, were surveyed. Those interviews were compared to those of HIV-negative inmates. The results found that “The HIV-positive participants were about 13 times as likely as the HIV-negative participants to have been tattooed in jail and about 10 times as likely to have had sex with another man in prison” (The Body, 2006). It was also found that “of the 68 HIV-positive men, 45 reported having sex with another man, and 22 of those men said they had sex with male prison staff members” (The Body, 2006). An additional fact I like to throw in there is that 59% of the positive tested interviewees had received tattoos (The body, 2006). The inmates suggested distributing condoms, using safer tattooing methods and having the provision of HIV/AIDS education as ways to help the HIV virus from spreading and prevent inmates from contracting it.

The Body (April 21, 2006). Retrieved September 30, 2009, from http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art8032.html

Weekly Blog #3

In my third blog I’d like to reflect on some of the stuff that we have done in this class. This past week, we had to submit Module 2 and I must say it was a lot of work. There was a lot of information in that module that related to genetics and biology, which were two classes I really disliked taking so it brought back painful memories! So far I have been reading the book “What looks like an ordinary day” and I have to say that is quite humorous to hear the character curse in the way that she does because I’ve never read a book that had this many curse words. However, I really like the cursing because it shows the authenticity in the feeling and emotions behind the character. So far from what I’ve read, the book talks about a African American woman who doesn’t say who her name is, finds out that she is HIV positive but becomes stigmatized at her hair solon when someone exposed her illness. She decides to move back to Idlwild which is where she used to live because of all the stigmatization. The book has been very interesting to read by seeing how one person can go through so many struggles just because they are infected with HIV. Honestly, if I would have done the same thing if word got out that I had HIV because I know people would start seeing me differently and jobs would probably be to afraid to hire me because of my disease. There is a part in the book where I didn’t like what she did because I think the way she did it was very foolish. She sent out letters to the men she had sexual encounters in the past in attempt, in my point of view, to get revenge on which ever partner transmitted her the disease. Somewhere in the letter she wrote something like I think it’s time for you to get tested for HIV. I think that was foolish because a lot of those men probably have a girlfriend and imagine if you found a letter like that coming from your partner’s ex or a person they had a hook up with. The fact is that, the author doesn’t explain this; the man she was messing around with could have been single at the time that he gave her the disease and had no idea that he carried HIV in the first place had given it to her. This man could have been innocent in his unawareness of carrying the disease which doesn’t make it his fault that she was infected with it. With that letter, she pretty much said you might have HIV since I have it and since we messed around before in an indirect, uncaring way. She didn’t care if this ruined the love life of the guys she wrote the letters to. I look very forward though to continue reading this book and to see what happens with her daily life and her life period.

Did you know?.....
”About 91% of HIV-positive men incarcerated in Georgia's prisons last fall were living with the virus before they were imprisoned” (The Body, 2008). In the Georgia Department of Corrections in October 2005, 44,900 male inmates were being held in 73 facilities. There were eight hundred and fifty six of the inmates that were tested positive for HIV and out of those 780 of them already were HIV positive upon entering the prison. Sixty-eight of the 88 prisoners who were tested HIV negative upon entering the prison but later tested positive were surveyed. Their interviews were compared with those of HIV-negative inmates. The reults will be posted on next weeks bog so stay posted………

Week #2

In this week’s blog, I want to discuss three things that have happened within the course that I’ve experienced or should I say we all have experienced. This past Friday we had to submit Module 1 and I must say that it was very lengthy and a lot of work had to be put in but in the end it wasn’t that bad. While doing that assignment I learned a few things that I never knew before. Zimbabwe’s prevalence for HIV/AIDS for females between the ages 15-24 is 7.7% and males of the same age group is at 2.9% (Epidemiological, 2008). Other countries that I looked up for their prevalence as well such as Sierra Leon, Lebanon, and Rwanda only had percentages between 0.1 and 1.3 (Epidemiological, 2008). This means Zimbabwe is much more highly prevalent for females and males between the ages of 15-24 to contract HIV/AIDS than the other countries. I also learned that Florida in June had counted 116,250 people with AIDS cases and that it would take another 14 years for that number to exceed 200,000. This means that in each year from now until the year 2023, 5999 people will get AIDS just in the state of Florida alone! When I looked at the “world clock” that showed the number of people living with HIV are the world at the moment in time which was on 9/11/09, it read 34,566,739. As of right now on September, 15 as I am writing this blog it reads 34,554, 719. It says that in every 16 seconds someone dies from AIDS and in every 12 seconds another person contract HIV. I’m not sure what the “world clock” numbers are supposed to mean if the numbers four days ago are more than what they are currently when the numbers now are increasing again. My interpretation of it is perhaps it is showing that the numbers are fluctuating between people who progressed from HIV to aids that died and those who are newly catching HIV. In other words, people are constantly dying from AIDS and at the same time people are contracting HIV like a never ending cycle.

Did You Know?.......
Did you know that "through the end of 2006, 5,977 inmates had been diagnosed with AIDS, an increase from 5,620 in 2005" (The Body, 2008). The second thing I want to discuss is that I began researching on a topic that we probably won’t cover in class. I began to research on HIV/AIDS in prison on how many of the inmates have it, how many contract it within the years and other topics. I learned that the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in prisons “confirmed AIDS cases represented about one-quarter of the inmates known to be HIV-infected” (The Body, 2008). Within the weekly blogs throughout the semester I will be giving a little bit of facts about my research and what I have discovered.

The third thing I would like to discuss is that I have found an organization that helped HIV positive patients in North Carolina in 2003. AIDS service organization “AIDS Care Service,” is trying to help persuade HIV positive Hispanics in North Carolina to seek treatment at the Infectious Disease Specialty Clinic at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. This help is based on that Hispanics HIV positive cases have rose in the past five years (The Body, 2003). On a side note, currently stationed in North Carolina, the AIDS Care Service has different programs in which they are helping people infected with HIV/AIDS. They have two programs that help people who are HIV positive and they are the housing and food pantry program. The housing program “helps people living with HIV find decent, affordable, long-term housing” and “ACS operates four emergency shelter apartments for HIV+ people who need shelter immediately” (AIDS, 2006). The Food Pantry program “gives groceries to HIV+ individuals and their families. It currently serves more than 200 people every month” (AIDS, 2006). The program has “distributed enough food in the last year to serve 40,728 nutritious meals” (AIDS, 2006) and “an average 125 clients plus their families receive free groceries each month” (AIDS, 2006). It is nice to see that people who have disease are not just seen as a waste of life and outcasted. It’s good to see organizations are still offering help and catering to those in need with diseases and trying to promote an uplifting lifestyle. Everybody deserves to live their life to the fullest with care, love, and affection even if they have a disease.

AIDS Care Service (2006). Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.aidscareservice.org/programs/programs_housing.asp

AIDS Care Service (2006). Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.aidscareservice.org/programs/programs_foodPantry.asp

Epidemiological Fact Sheeton HIV and AIDS, (2008). Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://apps.who.int/globalatlas/predefinedReports/EFS2008/full/EFS2008_ZW.pdf

The Body (June 19, 2008). Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art47204.html

The Body (August, 2003). Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://www.thebody.com/content/art12064.html

Week 1

Hello my name is David and I am a fifth year senior. Prior to coming to UCF, I attended the University of Florida for two years. This is my first year at UCF and so far I can say I like it because the school looks so modern and is very spacious. I picked up this class because I didn’t know too much about HIV/aids and I had to pick an elective so I thought it would be a good idea to pick an elective class that I would enjoy learning and be interested in. For my first assignments in the class we had to conduct simulations on two illnesses that can be found in HIV that are very serious to one’s health. The illnesses that we had to simulate were having PCP and Thrush. When I saw we had to simulate having PCP I thought to myself “that’s a drug, what does that have to do with HIV,” but when I looked it up I found out that it wasn’t. PCP stood for Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia not Phencyclidine, which is what the drug PCP stands for. So when we had the three choices to choose from to simulate this illness, in which I chose to sprint, I then understood why sprinting could simulate the feeling of having PCP. PCP is a fungal infection found in the lungs that make you feel short of breath, have rapid breathing and shortness of breath among other symptoms. After you sprint for a long distance you are going to feel those symptoms that so I kind of thought to myself after I stopped sprinting “man, this is what people with PCP feel like sometimes. This is crazy.” It was a good simulation because this is probably about the closest I would feel to having this illness without actually having it. I learned that it is important to watch who you have sexual relations with, to always wash your hands, and patch up your open cuts because HIV can be contracted by simply touching someone else’s cut with your cut, putting their blood in your system or even accidently putting their saliva in your system as well by means of ingesting it or touching an open wound.

The other simulation we had to conduct was having the illness of thrush. I had absolutely no idea what it was so I was eager to find out what it was. Upon finding out that it is a yeast infection that is found in the mouth specifically the roof of the mouth, gums and back of the throat, I thought that is very disgusting because it is supposed to look like cottage cheese and I hate cottage cheese! To conduct the simulation we had to stick two cotton balls in our mouth on both sides of our cheeks and eat a cracker following by swallowing water. I must say, this is my first time sticking cotton balls in my mouth and I can say that I didn’t like the experience. The cotton balls were too fuzzy and when I was chewing on the cracker, I was also chewing on the fuzz from the cotton ball. I couldn’t enjoy eating the cracker and worse of all I was trying to swallow the cracker without swallowing the cotton balls with it! I was able to swallow a tiny piece of cracker but the rest I couldn’t so I spat it out. Along with the first simulation, I learned that this simulation was affective in showing me how it would feel like to have thrush. Like it feels to have thrush, it was difficult to chew on the cracker because those cotton balls were like bumps in my mouth that wouldn’t allow me to chew properly because they were in the way. Having HIV/aids is an extremely serious disease which is why it is widely talked about and taught in preventive measures because the illnesses that can come along with it can also kill you or make you even more ill making the process of fighting this disease so much more difficult and to recover.

I like these simulations because I feel this is the best way to experience illnesses without actually having them and I learn best doing it this way.