Blog #4

Blog: I recently read "The Naked Truth" by Marvelyn Brown. For those of you who haven't read it I reccomend it. In the book Marvelyn describes the sitgmas and hardships that someone with HIV must face everyday. She became quite an HIV activist which lead her to speak out about HIV/AIDS on national television. Although she was some what of a celebrity she still faced alot of adversity. I recall one portion of her story where she changed jobs and no longer had health insurance. Without health insurance she couldn't afford her medication to fight HIV. Finnally through a government program she was able to get her medication after 4 weeks of not taking it. I thought this was terrible that someone infected by HIV couldn't even get the proper medication to fight it. I guess this is something that probably happens all the time in the US and with our current medical reform it is something that will not be fixed any time soon.



Brown, M., & Martin, M. (2009). The Naked Truth: Young Beautiful and (HIV) Positive. New York , NY: Harper Collins.



DYK: Keeping with my topic this week I found a list with how states go about teaching STD/HIV education and prevention in public school. I was shocked to see that there are some states where it is not madatory to have any sex education at all. This list shows if the state policy should teach about abstinence and contraception. Also, is shows weather or not the student's parents can have the option to take their students out of the sex education. Almost all of the states give the parents the right to take their children out, which I feel is the right thing to do. Abstinence should not be the main focus of our education but knowledge. However, students in Arkansas can not be taken out for the lesson and abstinence is fully stressed with no education about contraception. Therefore in Arkansas students don't have an option but to conform. I posted the link underneath so you can check it out.



http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SE.pdf

Blog #3 DYK: HIV Education in Public Schools

First off I would like to appologise for my blog being late. As I was writing my QOTW and responses when the internet went out and I didn't have time before work to get it done.

After saying that I started to look up some points of view on HIV education. I was startled to find out that HIV education really isn't education at all in most schools. The way most school deal with HIV education and other STD's is just to preach abstinence before marriage. To me this is no way to educate some one but just with a an easy way to not deal with the sensitive subject. I also ask this, what happens when somone gets married and has intercourse an their partner hasn't been abstient before marriage? Another way of so called HIV education is the scare tactic. This is also just another way to not deal with HIV directly and not having to educate young students about the disease. I know this tactic was implemented in my school growing up by showing different symptoms cuased by HIV.

Niether of these strategies seem to work in educating our youth about HIV. "In 2007 alone, there were 2.7 million new HIV infections. Almost half of these new infections were among people under 25 years old," (Avert.org 2009).We know young people are having sexual intercourse and we need to educate them on the risks of having unprotected sex and how prevelent HIV is. Also, this should not be limited to just a few hours during one school year (which is what I remember recieving). It should be repeated and be integrated into part of a cirriculum.

To those of you reading this if you would just post what you remember about HIV education you received in public school.

Blog #2 Outside Organization; UNICEF

The United Nations Childrens Fund or simply UNICEF is a global organization I found committed to helping children. They provide many services for children but on the subject of HIV/AIDS goes they have a very positive impact on children affected by HIV. UNICEF has a continuous campaign focused on the topic of children dealing with HIV around the world called Unite For Children Unite Against AIDS. The campaign's focus is on what it calls the "Four P's." The Four P's are: 1) Preventing mother to child transmission of HIV, 2) Providing pediatric treatment, 3) Preventing infection among adolescents and young people, 4) Protecting and supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS, (uniteforchildren.org). This four point strategy I feel is an amazing effort, especailly with its focus on prevention of newborns contracting HIV from thier mother's. The campaign funds HIV/AIDS centers to implement this plan of action. This is huge for these children and with support will help the fight against HIV.

What I find interesting about HIV

This semester I am also taking Evolutionary Biology and the first chapter of the text book deals alot with HIV. The thing I find most interesting about this disease is that some people are resistant from contracting HIV or take much longer to progress into AIDS. The reason is thought to be from an allele called delta 32. Persons that are homozygous with this allele are immune to HIV because this allele stops the retrovirus from binding to the cd4 cells of the immune system. I had no idea that someone could be immune to HIV. An individual that is heterozygous with the delta 32 have some resistance and cuase the progression of HIV to AIDS to take much longer or not at all. Knowing this give me some comfort because if our bodies can fight this disease then that gives me hope that we can find a cure. This is not the only thing I find interesting about HIV but it is at the top of the list.