On This Day...

So I don't know if was merely coincidental or if it was fate but today as I sat down to write my blog for this week, I came upon some suprising news. Today, September, 28 2010 is the opening day of AIDS VACCINE 2010. This is "the only conference dedicated to HIV vaccine research" (GLTNN, 2010). I don't know about any of you but I had no idea this conference even existed!

At this conference more than 500 presentations will take place showing the latest "research in HIV infection and the interaction of the virus with the immune system" (GLTNN, 2010). The conference which takes place in Atlanta, opens today and runs through October first. I found what could be called a mission statement about the conference. It states that it is "dedicated to acelerating the development of a preventitive HIV vaccine through: a shared scientific strategic plan, increased resources, and greater collaboration" (About the Secretariat Enterprise, 2005). One of the conference sponsors is Bill and Melinda Gates.

Being a science student, I would absolutely love to attend this conference for just one day. I would be so eager to see what the worlds leading researchers and scientist's have found. To be at the conference would be like putting yourself in the middle of all the action. People who attend the conference get to find out the latest research and advancements made in finding an HIV vaccine. The presentations are the most current and up to date information available and it would be so exciting to be a part of it. I'm not sure how long this conference has been around but I think it is amazing that there is an entire conference dedicated to finding a vaccine. It is beautiful to see people from all over the world coming together to share their knowlege and learn from one another.

Did You Know?

While my topic is on incarcerated women with HIV or AIDS I found something slightly off topic but I wanted to post it because it was really suprising to me. "Tattooing also contributes to the spread of HIV in correctional facilities. Incarcerated populations use hollowed out ballpoint pins and pen ink to create tattoos. They may use the same pin to create tattoos on multiple prisoners. A report from California suggests that tattooing was the most prevalent HIV risk-related activity among incarcerated men" (Incarcerated Populations and HIV/AIDS, 2001). While I knew that tattooing was a contributing risk factor to HIV I didn't realize its' prevalance among the incarcerated.

Sources:

GLTNN, (2010, September 28). AIDS VACCINE 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010, from GLT News Now: http://gltnewsnow.com/2010/09/28/aids-vaccine-2010-the-only-conference-dedicated-to-hiv-vaccine-research-opens-in-atlanta/

(2005). About the Secretariat Enterprise. Retrieved September 28, 2010, from Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise: http://www.hivvaccineenterprise.org/node/7

(2001, July). Incarcerated Populations and HIV/AIDS. Retrieved September 28, 2010, from AIDS Action Policy Facts: http://img.thebody.com/legacyAssets/37/72/incarcerated.pdf

Never Fails to Shock

After reading Teach's comment on my last blog I decided to look into something she had mentioned. She told me about another man who was knowingly infecting women with HIV. Some of these women had appeared on Oprah back in 2009 to tell their story.

A man the women described as "handsome and charismatic" had made his way into the life a 58 year old divorcee, Diane, who said that he made her "feel like the only woman on the face of the eath" (Winfrey, 2009). She began supporting him by paying for his bills, including his medical bills. Later on in the relationship she began to suspect him, Philippe, of cheating on her. Since she paid for his phone bill she confirmed this when hearing a voice mail, she broke up with him. Not too long after she went to her gynocologist for a routine exam and was informed that she had an STD. Diane had called one of the other women, Susan, that Philippe was cheating on her with and she had found out that he was dating 9 other women the same time he was dating Diane. Diane informed Susan that she had an STD so Susan wen to get checked as well. Both of them women came to find that they were HIV positive. Together they tracked down the women Philippe had been seeing and warned them of the situation. They ended up getting ahold of between 23 and 26 women. The women followed Philippe for about 6 months and eventually filed a police report which lead to a cease and desist order telling him to stop having unprotected sex. In 2005 Diane remembered a key piece of evidence that lead to Philippes arrest (Winfrey, 2009).

Philipe Padieu was charged with 6 counts of assult with a deadly weapon, the weapon being his body fluid (Winfrey, 2009). Unfortunaltey from this situation, 10 women became HIV positive. All of the 10 women testified against him and a DNA expert was able to find that the women all had the same stand of HIV (Winfrey, 2009). In May of 2009, Philippe was sentenced. He received 45 years in prison and would be eligible for parole when he is 76 (Winfrey, 2009). I admire these women for taking the offesnive on this sick individual. For them to help the other victims while they themselves are going through such a rough period in their lives is amazing. They didn't just sit there and wallow in their sorrows, they did something about it. I have no words for this man, I will never be able to understand their though process or why they did what they did. There will never ever be any justification for his actions except that he is obviously sick in the head. I think these women found a support system with the other victims and this is the best thing for them because in this case they all know exactly what one another is going through. I hope they stick together and keep in touch.

Did You Know?

In 1999, a New York city department of health study found that more than 18% of women entering the city jail were living with HIV compared to the 7.6% of men who were entering the city jail with HIV (Women in prison project, 2009). The same study found that African American women accounted for 21% of HIV positive cases while Latina's accounted for 14% and caucasian accounted for 12% (Women in prison project, 2009).

Sources:

Winfrey, O. (2009, October). New faces of hiv/aids. Retrieved from http://www.oprah.com/health/New-Faces-of-HIV-and-AIDS/5


Women in prison project. (2009, April). Retrieved from http://www.correctionalassociation.org/publications/download/wipp/factsheets/HIV_Hep_C_Fact_Sheet_2009_FINAL.pdf

Disgusting Excuse for a Human

So, I can across a new article that made me want to vomit! A 31 year old man in Boise, Idaho has been charged with knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV. The man confessed to having sex with 21 people he had met online since he was diagnosed back in October(KQH,2010). County health officials are trying to locate his other partners and say other charges could possibly occur(KQH,2010). He is currently being held on $500,000 bail(KQH,2010).

This is absolutely mind blowing to me!!! It is extrememly depressing and horrifying that these type of people exist in our world. I could never pity this individual because he obviously has no soul or conscience. Knowinly bringing HIV upon someone should be classified as man slaughter in my opinion. He is clearly a reckless human being and should be permanently removed from our society. I hope that his other sexual partners were safe and used condoms and hopefully this one case of an individual being infected is the only one. Personally I do not understand how one can have sex with someone they met online unless a relationship formed out of the meeting. Randomlly have intercourse with people you meet online hardly seems responsible but that being said even if it's you thing, wouldn't you expect both parties to implement the use of a condom?!?! I do not know the whole story of this man and how many times he did in fact use a condom but the whole situation is absolutley sickening.

It would be a different story if the man did not know he was HIV positive but even then I would hope no matter what a condom was being used. I just do not understand how a person can be so sadistic and careless. I hope he goes to prison and stays there. It's not like he only had sex with one person, he knowingly had HIV and had sex with 21 people without telling them. I really do hope the police can find the rest of his sexual partners so they can get tested. I can't even imagine how they will feel once they find out what this mad man did to them. I am so thankful that he was caught before he had the chance to risk someone elses life.

Did You Know?
The factors that contribute to an increased risk of HIV in incarcerated women are as follows, has used injection drugs, had had unprotected sex, has had a partner with HIV/AIDS, has had a partner that used or uses injection drugs, and has a history of sexual abuse. All thse risk factors should promt testing among women who have these risk factors.

Sources:http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art12954.html

KQH, . (2010, September 15). Boise man charged with exposing partners to hiv. Retrieved from http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=13158334

So I'm 3 weeks into the fall semester and already I have so many questions. These questions are the product of the HIV class im taking. After starting the module on statistics I was shocked. Putting everything into numbers makes it scarier! I knew that HIV/AIDS was definitely an issue but I can honestly say I didn't realize how prevalent it was.

Also, after reading some of the other blogs of my classmates, some interesting points of view came into mind. One of the main questions I have is why aren't we more aware? By we I mean the youth and the American public. I'm sure many people would be just as shocked as I was when I read all the different statistics about HIV and AIDS. On television there are so many ads and public service announcements but when I think about it I can only recall one that was on the topic of getting tested for HIV. I've seen announcements about saving starving children and donating to animal rescue foundations and preventing drunk driving but only one about HIV. I don't understand why there aren't more outlets for fostering awareness. Maybe I am just not looking and maybe I have overlooked these messages but with so many other issues brought to attention, shouldn't HIV/AIDS awareness be at the top of that list? I think sometimes people see only what they want to see and if something is not affecting them they they ignore it. I admit I am guilty of it. I feel like if everyone were exposed to the information I am being taught it would make a huge difference.

Did You Know?

There are more women in prison infected with HIV than men. Specifically, HIV infection in incacerated women are about two times higher than the rate of HIV infected incarcerated men. The HIV infection rate of incarcerated women are also 35 times higher than HIV infection in non-incarcerated women. I contintue to be shocked by the many statistics I come across and I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot more that surprise me!

Sources: Education Prison Project: http://www.idcronline.org/archives/june99/index.html

And so it begins....

To start off I feel like introducing myself a little bit to those who will read my blog. My name is Ashley and I am in my senior year at UCF. I am majoring in health sciences and have yet to fully commit to a career after college. Since time is running out I am definitely a nervous wreck. All I know is I am interested in the health care industry in a clinical aspect. I was super excited to sign up for the HIV course and I feel like I am going to learn so much. My biggest goal in taking this class is to become more open minded. I wasn't scared to be in this class, more excited and curious. I have to be honest when I say I really do not know much about HIV. I have learned some aspects of it but mostly about the biology and chemistry of the disease. I haven't been exposed to actual effects it has on people who are infected with it. I feel like I want to get away from the science of the disease and learn more about the people who have it and the psychology of it all. I have to say I am most curious about how people who are infected with it come to terms with having the disease. On a very superficial note, because I do not know much about it, I think people who are infected with the disease are immesnly brave. I in no way pretend to know what they go through but Im so eager to get a glimpe into how people deal in their situations. I hope this course opens my eyes to it all and I hope to gain some insight and come out of this course with more of an open mind. I hope those who read my blog can also offer some insight and open my eyes to different ways of thinking.

Did You Know?
For this portion of my blog I intend to focus on incarcerated women who are HIV positive or are living with AIDs. I am interested in finding out what types of treatment these women receive in prison and how they deal with their condition. I read an article on the subject and found some interesting issues. Since prison regulations makes it hard for the women to comply with the instructions of their HIV medication, they often times develop drug resistence. The article also says that the inmates are not made properly aware of the side effects of the medication and so they stop their medicine regimen. Perhaps one of the more suprising points in the article is that some inmates that do not know whether they are HIV positive or not refuse to get tested because they do not want to know.

Source:
HIV and the Incarcerated Women

http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art1194.html