All Good Things Come to an End?

...Or do they?

I just wanted to reflect up the closing of a challenging semester. I have gained so much from this course, more than any other, this one has effected the way I view the world, people, emotions, and myself. It has taught me the power of people to do good and bad, to be kind and compassionate or judgmental and full of hate. The fact is, those lessons will be with me always, even as the semester closes.

I am in disbelief, and will even miss blogs, questions of the week, and papers that ate up my free time. They were impactful tools in my growth as a person. I feel more equipped to be a good health care professional.

I looked the world clock for our question of the week and I realize as the numbers fluctuate my feelings have completely changed. When I first looked at that clock, I felt shocked, and helpless. I no longer feel that way. I hurt that the number keeps rising, but I DO NOT feel helpless. I feel empowered. With what we've gained here, we can drastically affect that number.

Calling all activists. Let's get to work.

http://www.sexetc.org/story/2992/
This website provides some basic steps to becoming an AIDS activist. Some of them are very involved, and some are simple, like VOTE! Our voice makes a big difference and if politicians would rather fight with each other than to recognize and make it a priority to press the educational system to educate everyone on prevalence and prevention, we need to speak our dissension. One of the biggest things of all is really simple, just prevent ourselves! Use protection. Simple enough.

Walk a mile in another person's shoes...

This class continues to amaze me. It's so rare I can say a class has a profound effect on my views. So much of my course work as an science major has been about facts and mechanisms. I always thought that HIV meant the end of life. I never knew about the life expectancy after diagnosis being many years given the right circumstances. So I think I subconsciously have approached most questions in our assignments with an idea that people who lived with HIV took a few pills everyday. There was no real realization of the life changes that the condition would bring because not only is there a bulky treatment regimen to remember each day, that regimen is also a constant reminder of the virus in their system. I know for me, I tend to overthink, and mull, and relate little things to meanings in life and for me, having to manage my simulated HIV each day for the M&M was a constant reminder of not only the virus but of the complications the virus would bring to my life. The stigmas especially. Even when people were not looking at me differently... taking the pills made me feel like I was, "different", an outsider to the carefree people who could roll out of bed with coffee in hand and go about their day without the worry of missing a pill...

It's a very profound place where I am at in my growth in this class and as a person...
I have to go finish my summary now... :)

What 50 cents can buy you...HIV and AIDS in Vietnam

These days, what can 50 cents get you? Unfortunately not much. I just went to get something from the vending machine and everything was $1.25 or more. The funny thing about that is, according to UNAIDS, most of the more than 1000 people that get infected with HIV in Asia EACH DAY could have been averted with less than half of the US dollar per person.

In the conservative Asian and Vietnamese culture, a lot of things are "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Even as things progress before my eyes, I still notice many things that people refuse to discuss. I think that HIV and AIDS are definitely on that list. Growing up I heard adults talking about AIDS as a joke. Sadly enough, it was a joke that people said plagued the promiscuous girls. I once heard a man say, "Don't you touch her, she's got AIDS bugs jumping all over her." Ridiculous to us, but it's really sad...ignorant... and risky to keep thinking that way.


Some Facts at a Glance... (From UNAIDS Viet Nam)
Did you know?...

*Prevalence in the general population is estimated at 0.53%.
*According to the 2005 Estimation and Projection Report, there were an estimated 293,000 people living with HIV in 2007.
*Of all reported HIV cases, 78.9% are in the age group 20–39, with males accounting for 85.2% of total reported HIV cases.
*People living with HIV are getting younger and heterosexual transmission is becoming more significant.
*As of 31 August 2007 were 132,628 cases of HIV and 26,828 cases of AIDS. There have been a total of 15,007 deaths due to AIDS in Viet Nam.

In a country as small and as impoverished as Vietnam, 15,007 deaths is huge. I can't help but wonder if many of those people did not received all the possible treatments they could have due to not only the level of poverty many of the high risk populations possess but also because of the stigma of discussing anything sex-related, or anything involving HIV/AIDS.

I was so proud of myself after last week's quizzes... and especially on the questions that involved the Myths regarding HIV... I continue to be confident that we are learning more than any of us expected or had set out to.


http://www.unaids.org.vn/sitee/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=413&Itemid=1