HIV and college students (blog 9)

Just a little note:Before I started on this blog I just wanted to apologize for missing last weeks blog. I was hospitalized after I found out I had leukemia. I am still in the hospital trying to kick this cancers butt but hopefully I should be out soon, and now that I have a schedule here school is no longer really a problem.

This week in class: This week in class the question of the week was talking about how what if your HIV child bit another child what w0uld you do? It is crazy to think about how much more the parent of an HIV positive child has to worry. Your child cant really be a child and has to grow up a lot faster because they have to worry about not doing things like this which is really sad. And then you have to think about when a situation does arise and you alert the parents. How are the parents going to react? Is your child going to have to switch schools? Is he/she going to be treated differently because of their illness? Its saddens me to think of all the things that could go wrong in a small situation of just a child biting another child.

On another note: Because we are college students I thought that it would be interesting to talk a little bit about HIV/AIDS and college students. While researching and looking over various sites I realized a couple of things in particular about college students as a whole. A lot of college students engage in risky behavior and don't even really know it. Factors such as peer pressure. drugs and alcohol greatly increase these risky behaviors. Many people who would not normally consent to unprotected sex according to center for disease control and prevention under the influence would end up having unprotected sex, which then leads to a whole string of other issues such as HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, STD's, STI's etc. I wanted to get a little bit more information so I dug up some more information and found out the the University of Central Florida did an assessment of risky behaviors in students. One part of the assessment was a knowledge test. The knowledge test was a simple test asking questions about risky behaviors, sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy. 64 percent of the students who took this assessment recieved a D which is a failing grade on the test. After reading about this I was a little worried about the standards of students on our campus but UCF quickly redeeemed itself. Even though a good number of people expected their partners to have protection, a good number of people in the study said they carried protection, and even more said that they would stop sexual intercourse if their was no condomn present. This shows that people have started being more responsible when it comes to risky behaviors.

Cites:
(1995). Hiv and college students. Retrieved from http://www.aegis.com/pubs/Cdc_Fact_sheets/1995/CPATH003.html

Melissa Castora. (Spring 2005). The Assessment of university students' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward sex. University of Central Florida- Undergraduate Research Journal, 1(1), Retrieved from http://www.urj.ucf.edu/vol1issue1/castora/index.php

Switzerland and AIDS

Sorry about last week and not posting up a blog. I have been in and out of the hospital the past couple of weeks because of my anemia. But I am now back on track. The country that I chose to look into was Switzerland. I wanted to know what some of the European states were doing about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I came to see that in Switzerland they have a pretty good hold on the situation. According to the university of California, San Francisco the adult prevalence of AIDS in Switzerland is 0.6 percent. Over the years they have been able to control the spread of AIDS. One of the things that I thought was interesting about Switzerland is one of the laws that they have implemented. Before you have unprotected sex you have to tell the person about your personal history. If you transmit HIV/AIDS to someone else you can be considered liable in a court of law whether you knew or not. With this law it forces people to be aware and check. Awareness is key and having to tell your sexual history makes it easier for others to know, and knowing makes it easier to make the proper precautions. When it comes to confidentiality and the laws that they have put in place. Switzerland goes by the UNAIDS protocol. This is simply rules and regulations that are designed to protect people living with the disease, so that they can have normal lives. These protocols protect people in the nine areas of everyday life, and at three levels: legislation, written regulations, and actual practices. That to me was a sigh of relief. It is refreshing to know that there are certain places that are really doing things to try and get a hold of this epidemic. And it is also nice to know that they are trying to help others affected by the virus be able to have a normal life, and not have to worry about being discriminated because of it.


Cite:

Bernard, Edwin. (2008, July 18). European AIDS treatment group. Retrieved from www.eatg.org

(2001). HIV/AIDS institutional discrimination in Switzerland. Social science and medicin, 52(10), Retrieved from www.sciencedirect.com doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00266-5

More fun HIV facts

Did you know: I thought that women passed HIV to their children because they sit in the moms belly for nine months, but apparently there are also other ways to pass it to a baby. According to the center for disease control and prevention Women can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy, while the baby is being delivered, or through breast-feeding.Apparently the mother passing the disease on to the children is the most common way children become infected with HIV. Another fun fact from the center of disease control and prevention states that nearly all US cases of children with HIV or AIDS comes from mother to child transmission. According to avert.com If a mother "takes no preventive drugs and breastfeeds then the chance of her baby becoming infected is around 20-45%". But there are many preventative drugs to be taken. There are these medications called antiretrovirals and apparently they work to stop the virus from being given to the child. "If women take these drugs before and during birth, and their babies are given drugs after birth, HIV transmission is reduced from 25% to less than 2% (fewer than 2 in 100)".

What else I learned this week: This week I started watching all the movies and I was touched by a segment in the movie And the band played on. Towards the end they began showing the many faces of people with HIV and AIDS and there was a poster that flashed that really pulled at my heart strings. The poster was that of a little girl and it said I have AIDS please hug me, I cant make you sick. At that moment all of the tears that I had been holding back for the whole movie just poured out. Its a shame how so many people treat these victims like lepers. People with AIDS are just that they are still people and they shouldnt be treated any less. I know that if I had HIV/AIDS I would want my life to continue to be as normal as possible.

Cites:
Center for disease control and prevention (2007, October 10). Pregnancy and childbirth. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov

(2009, August 27). HIV/AIDS and pregnancy. Retrieved from www.avert.org

Awareness and Views

So this week we had to interview a couple of our friends, family members etc. and ask them a couple of questions regarding HIV. I found this exercise to be very eye opening. Some of the answers that I got from my friends were alarming. A lot of them told me that they would look at me differently if I got HIV and that they would be more cautious around me. That hurt me because I know from personal experience that when you get sick that's when you need people to be there for you, and you don't want them to treat you differently. For example I have a plastic anemia and I know that when I first got sick people didnt know how to act around me and they would treat me differently. In addition when I would be in and out of the hospital people weren't really there and it hurts because when you are in those positions you are vulnerable and you want people to be there even if its just chit chat, any type of human contact is appreciated. This exercise also helped open my eyes to the un-awareness that there is when it comes to HIV and AIDS. It is a known fact in the US the south is high in numbers when it comes to people with HIV and AIDS. During one of the interviews my roommate Sandra brought to my attention that for example in miami where we come from its more of a cultural thing. In the spanish culture as well as the roman catholic church (which most spanish people are) they dont believe in condoms, and so they dont teach their children about using condoms. In the african american community they dont talk about HIV either. Most young girls think the worst thing that can happen to you when having sex without a condom is getting pregnant. When in reality there is so much more to that. I remember being being in highschool and I was fortunate to go to a highschool where they stressed sexual education, but a lot of the neighboring schools didnt have the same resources, and for most students sex ed was just you talking about STI's and getting pregnant and how we should be abstinant. The HIV section was a section in a chapter for most people. This made me think about my dad and how he is an AIDS counselor up in New York and how the State of New York does a lot more to raise awareness. They pass out condoms all over the place and offer information and do presentations. I think that more states should do things like that to promote safer sex.

Did you know: Sperm Washing!
A couple of blogs ago I talked about how if a male has HIV and his partner doesnt they can still have children that are HIV negative. This is done by sperm washing. HIV is found in seminal fluid not the semen itself. So what they do is they seperate the sperm from the seminal fluid and then use the concentrated sperm and inject it into the egg.

Cite:
Mark Cichocki, R.N., (2007, July 25). Sperm Washing-Hope For Serodiscordant Couples Wanting a Family. Retrieved from aids.about.com

Blog #2

This week in class: So this week we had to do the question of the week about AIDS and Africa. I thought that this was a very interesting topic. Its crazy how many people are affected by AIDS or HIV and how many of them don't even know it yet. People in Africa are the number one region affected by this disease. Many people have these theories about AIDS that makes it even worse. For example, some people believe that intercourse with a virgin will cure you of your AIDS. Sadly this leads to the spread of it. Slowly many organizations are trying to spread awareness and it is helping with the stabilization of the number of cases in certain areas. But there are still certain areas of Africa such as Uganda and Cameroon that have an alarming number of cases, and its still growing. It made me think about HIV and AIDS and how rampant it is in Africa. Many people when they think about Africa they think about poverty and AIDS. It also made me think about how big the issue of AIDS is. And it made me wonder why they make it seem like such a controlled issue.
Did you know: About last weeks blog I found some new interesting information about HIV, mothers, and babies. I thought that it was pretty interesting that "at least 75% of babies born to HIV positive mothers will test HIV negative without medical intervention. Studies have shown that for properly nourished HIV positive expectant mothers receiving regular prenatal care, over 90% of their children test negative with no drug therapy." I thought that was pretty cool it is amazing how the human body helps preserve the fetus and works at keeping the baby HIV free.
An HIV/AIDS organization: One AIDS organization that I know a lot about is Harlem United in New York City. My dad works for them during the weekends in their mobile testing centers. They do block parties and they drive around the city doing AIDS testing and handing out condoms, and spreading awareness. Harlem United allows people with HIV and AIDs access to a full range of medical, social, and supportive services. Their clients are people living with HIV/AIDS whose diagnoses are often complicated by addiction, mental illness, and homelessness. Many have also faced significant barriers to care due to poverty, race, HIV status, and sexual or gender identity. This organization is very helpful to many of the people living in the city whether its for HIV education, intervention, and awareness programs, or one of the outreach services they provide.

Cites:

• (n.d.). Mothers, Babies and AIDS. Retrieved from aliveandwell.org

• Annabel Kanabus, Jenni Fredriksson-Bass (n.d.). HIV and AIDS in Africa. Retrieved from www.avert.org

• (n.d.). Harlem UnitedCommunity AIDS Center. Retrieved from www.harlemunited.org

Blog #1- HIV positive and pregnant

One topic that has always interested me about HIV is that with the years it has become easier for people affected by this virus to lead normal lives. Now couples with HIV can have children. There are these assisted reproduction clinics also known as SPAR clinics and they use in vitro fertilization or insemination depending on who has HIV and they help these couples have HIV negative children successfully. For example if the male in the relationship is HIV positive they will wash the sperm and then inject it into the egg. This to me is pretty great because its exciting to see that even though people are stuck with HIV they dont have to give up their hopes and dreams of leading a normal life and they can also have families without passing on the virus to their children.