Closing TIme..

I am not going to say that this will be my last blog, but this will be my last entry for the course. I had never experience blogging weekly, or blogging in general until this course, but it has been a very unique one. It game me a sense of power, as I could say practically anything that was on my mind; my thoughts uncensored. Although this semester is coming to an abrupt close, I will soon not forget the experiences I have had the opportunity to be a part of. Putting cotton balls in my mouth and trying to eat crackers, swallowing handfuls of M&M's, and staying up late to watch videos in the library are just of few off the top of my head. I had no idea the course was this intensive and I surely had no knowledge that I would be blogging to the world!

As I wrote this weeks QOTW, it reminded my about the AIDS clock we had to look up at the beginning of the semester. When I compared my initial count with a recent one I was absolutely shocked! The count had gone up by over 350,000 people! It has only been a few months and that is a massive number. It saddens me even more to see the number climb as I am still viewing the page. It really puts into perspective how fast this disease is spreading, and the amount of people already infected. Hopefully we can see that number decline in the coming years.

Until next time...(if there is a next time!)

I have grown so much in this class!

This course has been very interesting over the past few months, and I can honestly say that I can take something away when it ends.  Tonight I was able to attend the men's infected panel, and was able to hear the real life accounts from four men who are actually living with the disease.  It is really different reading about stories and then actually hearing people telling their story face to face.  It seems to have more of an effect on me.  I have never met anyone who was HIV positive (that I knew of) and was very curious to hear what they would have to say.  I didn't really know what I was going to ask, if anything, when I entered.  So I decided to sit back and listen to what they had to say to other's questions.  All of them had been living with the disease for a number of years, which made me very impressed with the medical advances in the HIV/AIDS field over the past decades.  They said that when they were initially diagnosed, their doctors basically gave them a death sentence because back in the 80's and early 90's it was a "terminal" disease.  Not much was know about the disease then, and even less was known about the treatment.  They are not on the cocktail of different medications, and seem to be living life to the fullest.  I was not able to join them at Logan's after the panel, I am sure that would have been a fun experience.

As the year comes to the close, I am sure I will not forget the lessons learned in this course.  The thrush simulation, blogging weakly, and swallowing M&M's whole are just a few of the experiences that stick out in my mind.  I took this course initially because I thought it might be one of my easier options.  I was wrong about the workload, but it ended being in my benefit.  It change my outlook completely on the disease.  I made me question some of my sex practices and put me in the shoes of and HIV infected individual in many of the assignments.  This course has really touched me, and I am thankful I had the opportunity. 

DID YOU KNOW>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

After attending the panel tonight, I heard someone ask a question about a HIV vaccine developed in Thailand.  I had heard nothing about it before tonight, so I decided to research the topic.  An experimental vaccine has been developed and tested in Thailand and had been given to 16,000 individuals.  It was a combination of two older vaccines that by themselves could not cut the rate of infection.  They concluded in the study that the people who were given the vaccine and not the placebo cut their chances of infection by 31.2%.  Honestly, I don't think these figures can be made into an accurate conclusion about the vaccine.  How do they know how much unprotected sex those people were having, in either group?   There are just too many variables involved to make any conclusive assumptions in my opinion.

Source:  HIV Vaccine 'Reduces Infection'. (2009).  Retrieved November 18, 2009 from BBC.com.  Taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8272113.stm.

HIV Reflection

These past few weeks have been pretty wild.  From T-Pain coming to bomb threats in the parking garage, its been crazy!  I wasn't able to go to the concert, but my friends and I went out to the bar after that night and we saw him out on the town!  I have to admit that it was pretty cool!  I haven't been out for a while, so being in an environment with so many drunk individuals got me thinking about some of the dumb decision college kids can make.  We preach safe sex practices in school and college but who knows how many people actually are able to make the right decision while intoxicated.  I know I have heard some horror stories from my friends after a night out with the guys.  Not a safe way to keep from getting any STD's or HIV at all. 

This weeks QOTW I thought was a very interesting one.  It dealt with "tracking" those with HIV/AIDS and even converting to a system where those infected will be exiled from the rest of society!  I could not disagree with these ideas more.  When first reading the topic, I immediately thought of if I was one of those people.  Even though I feel that I would be responsible in keeping my disease in check it would not matter to the government.  To them I would be just another person at risk of infecting the population.  Swept out of my home to live with others infected, my life would be so different.  How could this system actually work?  We build our own separate community in isolation?  I just don't see how taking people away from their families would not stir up controversy in the world.  It scares me to think that any government would resort to this.  I'm sure we can think of some better alternatives than that!

SOCCER SEASON IS ALMOST OVER!!

Finally the season is coming to a close. Our last game is at home this Saturday against ranked Tulsa, the we are done. We didn't do well enough to make it to the Conference USA tournament this year, but it's ok, we are a very young team. Hopefully next season will be better! Just thought I would let everyone know!!

I have found that this HIV course has been very different that any other class I have taken while at UCF. Honestly when I saw this course on my electives sheet I wasn't interested at all. "A class about AIDS?" is what I thought to myself. "No way that will be interesting". While reading down the other class electives, everything else sounded so boring, so I chose this course. This course has been so in-depth and so subject specific that it is not hard to retain the information learned each week. Everytime I hear the word HIV or AIDS now on television or conversation I feel like I need to give my "two cents" on the subject. I really think I will carry this information on.

This weeks QOTW dealt with the ethics of animal testing. Honestly, I think we should test on chimps if we are sure the test vaccines will harbor results. If we are getting valuable test statistics out of the animal testing, then I feel that it is ok. Would we rather risk testing on humans and potentially risk their lives? No I am not an animal hater by any means. If there is a squirrel in the middle of the road I swerve to avoid it. This is more than just the life or death of one animal. It could mean potentially saving hundreds of thousands of lives in the future. That is a risk that I feel is necessary.

DID YOU KNOw>>>>>>>>>>>>>
On Jan. 30, 2009 there was a lawsuit against a former professional baseball player, Roberto Olomar. His ex-girlfriend is suing him for $15 million because he illegedly lied about his HIV status in order to have unprotected sex with her. He refused to get HIV test, and doctors now say that he has full blown AIDS. She is not, however, suing because she has been infected. Although she has tested negative for the virus, she is suing on the grounds of "AIDS phobia", the constant fear of contracting AIDS. No decision has been made yet.

source: Netter, Sarah. Lawsuit Claims Baseball Star Olomar has AIDS, Lied About Status. 2009. Retrieved November 4, 2009 from ABC News.com. Taken from abcnews.go.com/sports/oncall/story

...And the work starts again...

That week off was awesome.  Spent the whole week not procrastinating because I did not have any assignments due!  Unfortunately, this week the class continues on the regular schedule.  Since I got the results back from my HIV test, I was able to convince my girlfriend to take an HIV test at our campus testing center as well.  She has been reading all my assignments for this class as I am doing them, so she has began to take an interest in the topics as well.  I was very proud when she went to get her test! I scared her and told her the needles were terrible (she hates needles), but then felt bad and told her no needles were necessary.  I hope she keeps learning as I am in this course.  More information means more educated decisions about the disease!

This weeks question of the week made me reflect on my future.  In the situation there is a possibility that my child would be ostracized and humiliated by his peers.  If I were to choose to let the principal tell the victims parents about my HIV positive son, he might not be accepted anymore.  I had to think long about this one.  It would be in my sons best interest to keep this a secret, but it would not be fair because of the chance the other child could be infected.  What if they were perhaps infected and I decided to keep this information secret?  It could severely threaten that child's life.  Maybe a lawsuit could even ensue on your family due to keeping this secret.  I finally chose to inform their parents of the risk.  I doubt any set of parents would be in bad enough moral character to let this delicate information spread through the entire school.

DID YOU KNOW>>>>>>>>>>>

Tommy Morrison, the boxer who had a false positive earlier in his career, was also a co-star in the movie "Rocky V" in which he portrayed a young and upcoming boxer named Tommy Gunn.  For those of you who did not watch the movie, Sylvester Stallone (AKA Rocky Balboa) kicked his butt in a street brawl at the end of the film.  Morrison tested negative in 2007 for HIV.

"Rocky V" co-star, boxer Tommy Morrison is HIV negative.  Retrieved October 28, 2009 from Not AIDS News.  Taken from http://notaids.com/en/theduke.

Slow week...

We finally have a week off! I hope I'm not the only one excited about this! On UCF Soccer news we beat Marshall on national television as our game sunday was on CBS College Sports channel! We won 1-0! So we are on our way to UAB this weekend for our next conference game... wish us luck!

Last week I got my test results back from my OraSure test....negative! What a relief! Although I felt like I had nothing to worry about when I first got tested, the long waiting period from the initial test to the results was the worst part. I found myself reflecting on my own personal choices in the past, making my wonder if I had done everything to protect myself efficiently from this virus. I have been dating my girlfriend for over a year now and I would have no idea how to tell her if I was positive. Surely she would be positive as well. All of these thoughts went in and out of my head during the waiting period. I thought about how drastically my life would change. Would I be accepted by my family? By my teammates and friends? I simply would never want to deal with these issues. I know it would not be the end of the world if I was HIV positive, it would just make things very complicated in my life.

DID YOU KNOW>>>>>

Magic Johson announced he was HIV positive in 1991 and immediately decided to retire from professional basketball. Despite his retirement, he was voted by fans to participate in the 1992 NBA All Star game. Although he was encourage not to play in order to not endanger other players if he were to have an open wound on the court, he decided to participate. He led the West team to a 153-113 win and was crowned All-Star MVP for the game. What an athlete!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Johnson#HIV_announcement_and_Olympics_.281991.E2.80.9392.29

Another Stressful Week...

Well, I am one week deeper into this course and the work keeps coming.... as to be expected though.  Last week was actually one of the more interesting weeks to me, I found the movies I watched to be very moving.  I picked "Silverlake Life", "Common Threads" and "The Age of AIDS" as my movie choices.  Honestly, I didn't think I was going to get much out of these videos, I really don't watch movies unless they are comedies:)  I found "Silverlake Life: The View From Here" to be especially sad.  It was filmed "home video" style making the content very intense to watch.  It depicted many things that were hard to watch: such as the main character Tim wither away to skin and bones.  One scene even cut from him talking to the camera in one scene ( in a very weakened condition) to the camera zoomed in on his dead body.  It was very disturbing.... 

For my country I chose the Philippines!  I managed to  find a whole section on the internet about HIV/AIDS laws on the internet.  Philippines  legislature states:

"Article 6 [edit]

Confidentiality will be protected on HIV status.

• All healthcare workers, and anyone handling health records will strictly preserve patient confidentiality on HIV status, and the identity of people with HIV.
• HIV status can be shared by health officials in three circumstances; officials of the AIDSWATCH council, Health workers who are involved in treatment and need to know for their own safety, and a judge if under subpoena for an official court case.
• HIV results may be given to the person tested, an official of the AIDSWATCH council, and a parent or guardian. It cannot be given to anyone else.
• Legal penalties can be provided for breaching confidentiality.
• People with HIV must inform spouses and sex partners as soon as reasonably possible."

They encourage individuals to tell spouses they are HIV positive, but I don't know how they could regulate this or punish this, as it is the person's option to choose the right time and place to tell them.  The prevalence of AIDS in the Philippines is very low at this point at time, but is on the rise.  Since it is such an isolated island, the numbers have been kept low.  

Did you know????

Less than 0.1% of the Filipino adult population is estimated to be HIV positive, compared to the .6% of the United States.  The figures may not seem that different, but considering that the U.S. has 3 times the population of the Philippines, it is an impressive statistic!

Until next week....

sources:

Adult Prevalence Rate.  2009.  Retrieved October 14, 2009 from Nation Master.  Taken from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_hiv_aid_adu_pre_rat-hiv-aids-adult-prevalence-rate

Summary of Philippine AIDS Law.  2009.  Retrieved October 14, 2009 from Wikiversity.  Taken from http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Summary_of_Philippine_AIDS_law