Long Week Ahead

I had a wonderful Birthday weekend and I still have not gotten all of my motivation back for this week. The QOTW was simple for me. I am going into the medical field so my instinct is to help people no matter what. I feel like in a situation where you are at risk you should try to protect yourself as much as possible but you need to help the person in need as well. I could not live with myself knowing that I could have helped and instead I did nothing and someone died. Even if that person is a complete stranger they have loved ones and deserve the right to be helped.

I like this class more and more as the semester progresses. I think it is because I am learning so much and this class makes me think out side the box. I read the book At Risk for assignment three and it was a great book. It made me cry but the way it was written made me know that everything was going to be fine in the end. I have been frustrated regarding my blog group. It seems that only some of us actually post a blog each week by the due date and some don’t even post a blog at all. I hope this changes soon! As for the movies we have to watch I honestly haven’t watched any of them yet but I have them. I am going to watch Common Threads tonight and Silverlake Life tomorrow along with Age of AIDS. I saw on the discussion board that we shouldn’t watch Silverlake Life alone because it is intense so I got my best friend to agree to watch it with me. I am a very last minute person but I always make sure I get everything done and that it is done well. I look forward to watching these movies because I am sure I am going to learn a lot.


Did You Know: Children with HIV

In 2008 it was estimated that there were 2.1 million children living with HIV/AIDS worldwide (Avert, 2009). Also in 2008 it was estimated that there were .43 million newly infected children with HIV worldwide (Avert, 2009). Finally it was estimated that in 2008 there were .28 million children that died from AIDS worldwide (Avert, 2009).

Each year 390,000 children die of AIDS and within the next two years 580,000 children will die (Avert, 2009).



References

Web: (2009, December 4).Worldwide HIV/AIDS Statistics. Retrieved February 24, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm

Image: (2009, December 4). Stop AIDS in Children. Retrieved February 24, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/stop-aids-children.php

Stressed

This week I have been stressed and have fallen behind in all of my classes. I have to be caught up by Friday since it is my birthday and I know I will not be getting any work done this weekend.

The QOTW this week was interesting. I really liked that it gave me the opportunity to ask the people close to me about HIV/AIDS. Some of the responses were surprising but other then that my two friends and my mom knew as much as I thought they would. My two friends knew more about HIV/AIDS since it has been taught in school and if they ever had a question they could just ‘Google’ it. My mother on the other hand did not know that much. When she was growing up people didn’t know that HIV/AIDS even existed so I wasn’t surprised when she couldn’t answer some of the questions I asked her. What surprised me was how totally comfortable both of my friends were while they were talking about this and when I asked them if they had ever been tested. This is not a topic that people freely discuss so I thought there would be some hesitation on their part but there was not. My mother did not think people could live for long after they had HIV and when I told her they could she was surprised. She thought that once you were diagnosed you died within a few years. I liked being able to educate all of them on this topic because it is so important for everyone to know about.

Also I have not finished reading my book for assignment three which is due Friday. I hope to have in finished by tomorrow. Writing the assignment does not stress me out it’s the reading that does. Like I have previously written I am not that big of a reader!


Did You Know: Children with HIV

Each year in the United States “there are 6,000 to 7,000 children who are born to HIV infected mothers” (Children’s Hospital Boston, 2005). In 2007 it was estimated that there were 3,793 children under the age of 13 that were living with AIDS in the U.S. (Avert, 2009). These children most likely acquired HIV from “their mothers during pregnancy, labor, delivery or breastfeeding” (Avert, 2009).

In 2006 there was an estimated 28 pediatric AIDS cases which is significantly less then 195 cases in 1999 and 896 cases in 1992 (Avert, 2009). The decline in cases is believed to be due to the HIV testing of pregnant women and the use of antiretroviral drugs (zidovudine/AZT) (Avert, 2009).


References:

Web: (2005). AIDS/HIV. Retrieved February 17, 2010, from Children's Hospital Boston: http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site550/mainpageS550P0.html

Web: (2009, December 4).United States Statistics. Retrieved February 17, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/usa-statistics.htm

Week 5 of Classes

The weeks go by so fast and I still feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do in each of my classes. Now that I have a routine I am able to get everything accomplished in time and I have been receiving good grades too. This class makes me think! Which I know I should be saying about all of my classes but I can’t. This class makes me think about things that I have never thought about before or have even wanted to think about and that is one of the things that is making me like this class more and more. For example the QOTW’s make me not only think about HIV but make me think about how I would react in any of those scenarios. Also module one surprised me greatly with the Florida static’s. I never knew that the city of Ft. Lauderdale had over 16,000 reported HIV cases in 2007 and that is where I live (Douglass, Slide 71). I have a few friends that are pretty irresponsible when it comes to their sex lives and now I am nervous for them. I’ve talked to them about this class and how I have to go get tested and a few of them said that they wanted to get tested too. I think that if more people were aware of the HIV statistics in the place they live they would be more likely to use protection and get tested.

Did You Know: Children with HIV

Treatment for children with HIV is more difficult then treating adults. Not all off the antiretroviral medications can be used on children and some of the ones that can do not work as well. There are currently 12 antiretroviral medications that are approved for children (AIDS.org, 2009). The correct doses of these medications are not known and some are based on the children’s weight or body surface area (AIDS.org, 2009). Because of this the doses are adjusted as the child grows to stay effective. The medications come in the form of liquid, powder, granular form, and pills (AIDS.org, 2009). Children that can take pills have more options in medications then children who can not (AIDS.org, 2009). Without the proper treatment “about 20% of children die or develop AIDS within one year” (AIDS.org, 2009).

The video below I found on YouTube and shows a mother who has two children, one who is HIV positive and one who is not. It is eye opening and sad. Take notice to the part where the mother is giving her daughter her medications. There are so many and she has to take them every day to stay healthy.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7p7zlfEi8

References

Slides: Douglass, S. (2007) Statistics, HSC 3595, University of Central Florida.

Web: (2009). CHILDREN AND HIV. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from AIDS.ORG: http://www.aids.org/factSheets/612-Children-and-HIV.html

Web: Duncan, E. (2008, March 1). INVISIBLE: Children living with HIV/AIDS [Video file]. Video posted to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7p7zlfEi8

What a Week

For the past week I have been in a terrible mood. I haven’t been feeling good and I have been completely stressed out. I moved back to Ft. Lauderdale at the beginning of this semester so I’ve had to find all new places to study and even new doctors to go to. I normally go to a library to study and use the internet because the internet service at my house is not that great. I finally found a library that I like to go to and they found two of the movies that I want to watch for assignment four and ordered them for me. The biggest issue about having to use public libraries now is the hours they are open. I was so used to the UCF library staying open to one in the morning and since I am a total night owl I loved it. The latest the libraries here stay open is eight at night (not that great for me).

So with regards to this class I have been staying on track pretty well. I found a few test centers that I can go to, to get my HIV test. Now I just have to call and see which one is the best one and make an appointment. I am not really nervous about getting tested because I have already been tested before. I also need to start reading my book choice for assignment 3. I am actually looking forward to reading it, now I just have to find some free time to get it done. Also I realized that I won’t be able to make it to a panel meeting since I live three hours away and I ordered the book I need to read to replace that assignment. I feel like this semester I have had to do so many reading assignments not only in this class but in my other three as well. I am not that big of a reader with the exception of the Twilight books (love them) so this is rather new to me! Also I got 100% on assignment two which made me very happy since I was not happy at all with my assignment one feedback. All in all this class is going well for me and I still feel overwhelmed at times but I am much more confident then when I started.

Blog Add On:

The AIDS organization that I found is called UNAIDS. It is one of the United Nations programs located in Geneva, Switzerland. This program works in 80 different countries and works to “prevent new HIV infections, care for people living with HIV, and mitigates the impact of the epidemic” (UNAIDS, 2009). Their main goal is to “stop and reverse the spread of HIV” (UNAIDS, 2009). They eventually hope to provide “universal access to prevention, treatment, and support services” for people who have HIV (UNAIDS, 2009). They also research which countries are in need of HIV programs and work to get programs placed there to help educate and treat the people of that country.

Did You Know: Children with HIV

In infants and children HIV develops rapidly because their immune system is not fully developed. If these children do not receive treatment a third of them will die before their first birthday and half will die before their second birthday (Pembrey, 2009). In the past few years the number of children that were getting antiretroviral therapy (ART) has increased but in 2008 less then 40% of the children who live in low-middle income countries were not receiving ART (Pembrey, 2009). The availability of these medications is not the only problem that is causing children to die from HIV, the time it takes for a child to be tested is a bigger problem in these low-middle income countries. In countries that are developed children can be tested within 48 hours after birth but it countries that are less fortunate it could take up to 18 months for a child to be tested (Pembrey, 2009). From what I previously wrote you can see that a child that has to wait 18 months to be tested most likely would not still be alive when they are allowed to be tested if they were HIV+.

References:

Web: UNAIDS, (2009). Uniting the world against AIDS. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from UNAIDS: http://www.unaids.org/en/

Web: Pembrey, G. (2009, December 22). HIV Treatment for Children. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from AVERT: http://www.avert.org/hiv-children.htm