Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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



2 comments:

  1. Yea I know my parents were from a generation where that sort of stuff was either hush hush or it no one ever talked about it. My parents think people with HIV die pretty quick and it is because people did irresponsible things. My dad actually told them though they had to get blood tested to get married. I thought that was kind of funny because when they got married they could not sequence genes so they were testing for viruses.

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  2. As with anything in life, practice is the key. You will become a better reader the more you read. I read the Twilight series, at least three of the books in a weekend. They were so good I just couldn't put them down. I took the books everywhere I went.

    If the mother takes her medications as directed, every day, she can have an HIV negative baby. HugMe works with pregnant mothers who are HIV positive and their track record is great. Only two mothers gave birth to positive babies and that was because they didn't take their medications as directed. This was over a five year period.

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