Blog #12

This is the last time that I will be blogging for this class or at all in general. I had never blogged before entering this class. For the most part I like blogging because I was allowed to say what was on my mind about the class, the assignments, and my emotions towards them. Although I like the experience of blogging for the first time, I will honestly say that I will never do it again unless I have too. I don’t like just sitting in front of a computer and just typing about stuff, it just isn’t me. I really enjoyed our simulations from earlier in the semester about the Thrush and PCP and even recently with the m&m simulation. Although we wrote a lot in this class I learned a lot of things that I did not know. I just got out of the men’s panel not too long ago and I liked listening to the guests about how they handled having the disease, what they believe in about the disease and how optimistic they are with fighting it. I can’t believe of all the struggles that they have gone through just to stay alive. I greatly enjoyed listening to them speak and it was a pleasure to having them speak amongst those who were there when they didn’t have to. I liked the fact that I took this class and I don’t have any regrets taking it because this is a subject that everybody should learn about, including me, and we need to be as educated as possible about this issue because millions die every year because of this ongoing plague.

Did You Know?........
According to Palm Beach County commissioners, there was a plan in 2003 to make a state law that would enforce every county for jail inmates to undergo an HIV test in the state of Florida. With this plan, prisoners would be tested regardless of whether they had been convicted of any crimes (The Body, 2003). Commissioner Addie Greene, believes that a mandatory HIV testing of inmates would help decrease the prevalence of HIV in jails particularly among minority groups but others see the idea of it just costing too much (The Body, 2003). Ruth Gottlieb, chair of the Palm Beach County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union claims that “mandatory HIV testing is wrong.” She also questioned Greene's goal of increasing minority testing because only a small percentage of the minority community is being tested (The Body, 2003). Glenn Krabec, an immediate past chair of the county HIV Care Council, said that mandatory testing of people convicted of crimes probably would be a good idea, but testing of everyone before conviction would not because those who are convicted for their crimes could be transferred elsewhere, which would not help contain the disease because there would be new inmates coming in that could be already infected and therefore making this whole idea irrelevant. This is why HCC Program Director Gerald Adams said he was "absolutely" in favor of testing everyone who enters the jail (The Body, 2003). A few commissioners briefly acknowledged such concerns but commissioners have still unanimously approved of Greene's idea in asking the Legislature to pass a mandatory jail testing law (The Body, 2003).

The Body. (2003). Retrieved by November,18, 2009, from http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art6811.html