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