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
AIDS, please Ashley, not AIDs. This should be a very interesting Did You Know. You might want to look to see if there are any differences between jail and prison.
ReplyDeleteOnce you know you are HIV positive you are legally obligated to tell all future partners. Some prefer not to know so they will not be put in that position.
When you do you Did You Know section state it in the following manner.
Did You Know that women in prison find it hard to comply with the directions for taking their medications that they become drug resistant. That education in prisons on the side effects causes many to stop their medications and that many inmates do not know their HIV status.
Short, sweet and to the point. By listing the article source you let the readers go to that source for more information. Did You Know is a tease if you will.
Nice beginning, now I want to see pictures, videos, etc. anything that will enhance your written words.