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.