Blog #6 - HIV/AIDS Vaccine

I was uncertain of what I wanted to blog about this week so I started researching for my "Did You Know" section, and I came upon a video about research that is being conducted for an HIV vaccine.  So, I decided to blog about that.

The video was posted on YouTube in August of 2009, and I was interested to see how there research has progressed.  As of January 28, 2011, they are screening for potential participants for their trial run of their HIV vaccine (DOM, 2011).  "The trial is testing the safety and effectiveness of a combination of two HIV vaccines to see if they will stimulate an immune response to HIV or decrease the amount of virus in the blood if a person later becomes infected." (DOM, 2011)  I think that the idea of an HIV vaccine is extremely exciting.  It would be beyond amazing if they could create a vaccine that could eradicate HIV, similar to the way that past vaccines have nearly eliminated all cases of diseases like polio and smallpox.  I am very intrigued by the idea of a vaccine and actually found very interesting information.  According to the Wall Street Journal, they have a discovered a naturally occurring antibody that kills 91% of HIV strains (Schoof, 2010).  This antibody was found in a "60-year-old African-American gay man." (Schoof, 2010) This is a huge leap of progress, but unfortunately it will still take years to develop an effective HIV vaccine. (Schoof, 2010) I have included a video that summarizes the findings and the link to a time-line of HIV vaccine research.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703609004575355072271264394.html#project%3DAIDS_TIMELINE0909%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

References:

Department of Medicine. (2011). Case western Reserve/University hospitals join nationwide HIV vaccine clinical trial. Retrieved February 23, 2011, from http://cwrumedicine.org/blog/case-western-reserveuniversity-hospitals-join-nationwide-hiv-vaccine-clinical-trial/

Schoof, M. (2010). Advances in quest for HIV vaccine. Retrieved February 23, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703609004575355072271264394.html

Did You Know?

This week I have chosen to look at the statistics for Rwanda.  There are 170,000 people living HIV in Rwanda, 88,000 of them are women (UNAIDS, 2009).  The adult prevalence rate among adults 15-49 is 2.9% (UNAIDS, 2009).  There are 22,000 kids living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda, and 139,000 kids have become orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2009).  There have been 4,100 deaths due to HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2009).  Surprisingly, these statistics are not as bad as some of the other countries that I have looked at, they are horrific nonetheless, but I expected it to be worse because of the recent hostility in Rwanda.  I also found a video about people making probiotics that have helped with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.  I think that it is an awesome, inexpensive way to help those that cannot afford or do not have access to antiretroviral drugs.

References: 

UNAIDS. (2009). Rwanda. Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/rwanda/ 

Take A Moment

Lately, life has been really hectic.  There has been so much going on, things that I have planned and other things which I have no control over.  I feel like I get so caught up in my daily activities that I never take a moment to just look at my life, the direction it is headed, if I am becoming the person I envisioned, or how fortunate I am.  There is so much crazy stuff that goes on in this world, and I feel like all of my problems are laughable.  I could never imagine waking up in a third world country, not have anything to eat or drink, and to just be engulfed by poverty.  Even the idea of having HIV/AIDS is mind blowing.  It definitely seems like one of those diseases that will transform every aspect of your life.  The stigma that surrounds the disease, secondary illnesses that are all too easy to contract, and the way it would change the way that you view and live life.  Just looking at life from that perspective makes a lot of my pursuits and problems pretty childish.  I think it is pretty healthy to take a moment and reevaluate your life every now and again.  Otherwise, I feel like you will just get so caught up in the moment that you will end up somewhere that you never intended.  Also, it seems like you never have that moment of realization until something life altering happens, and personally I hope that it never gets to that point.  I feel like this point was really driven home after doing my "Did You Know" section.  There is so much need in the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, and I feel like I should actively be doing something to help rather than being absorbed in my own life.


Did You Know?

 This week I have decided to take a look at Swaziland.  As of 2009, there are approximately 180,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Swaziland. (UNAIDS,2009) There is a 25.9 % prevalence rate among adults age 15-49. (UNAIDS,2009) Once again, there are more women than men that are infected with HIV/AIDS, approximately 100,000. (UNAIDS,2009) It is estimated that there are 14,000 children that have HIV/AIDS, and 86,000 that have been orphaned by AIDS. (UNAIDS,2009) Another alarming figure related to women is that in 2004, the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 42.9%. (UNAIDS,2009) As of 2007, there are 58,250 people that need antiretroviral medication. (UNAIDS,2009) Swaziland is definitely one of the countries that have been hit hardest by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  

UNAIDS. (2009). Swaziland. Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/swaziland/

I have also included an excellent video.  It is somewhat lengthy but it makes an excellent point.  It really depicts just how urgent the HIV/AIDS situation is in developing countries.

Perspective

Doing the interviews for the question of the week was very interesting for me.  I liked getting the opportunity to see what others thought's were towards HIV/AIDS.  I asked a lot of people that I have known for quite some time, and it was odd that we had never talked about it.  Usually, you talk about things that are having an affect on the world population or even the national.  Everybody talks about an event if important people are involved in some kind of accident or assassination; however, there is a disease that is running rampant through every country in the world, killing millions, and orphaning millinos more.  I just find it very puzzling that the topic has never really come up before.  It might be that I have never been personally affected by it nor have my loved ones.  I do not think that is a very good excuse though.  I want to be concerned with things that are affecting millions of people, I do not want to wait until it personally affects my life.  In the past I have been to Haiti and since then I have been very concerned with poverty.  I have done various things to try and help people that are living in such terrible conditions.  I want to have that kind of concern for people that are living with HIV/AIDS because they definitely have a lower quality of life. I mean that in a physical sense, I do not doubt that there are people afflicted with HIV/AIDS that are much happier than people that are physically sound. 

http://www.helpforhiv.com/

I thought this was an awesome website.

Did You Know?

This week I have decided to take a look at HIV/AIDS in Malawi.  This country interests me because I had two friends that did an internship over the summer.  Out of 14 million people in Malawi, there are 1 million people living with HIV/AIDS (AVERT, 2011).  "AIDS is the leading cause of death among adults in Malawi, and is the major factor in the countries low life expectancy of just 43 years." (AVERT, 2011)  That is awful.  "Between 1985 and 1993, HIV prevalence amongst women tested at urban antenatal clinics increased from 2% to 30%." (AVERT, 2011) That is a huge increase in such a short amount of time, luckily it has decreased to 17% (AVERT, 2011).  HIV/AID is more common in women than men, 60% of the affected population being women (AVERT, 2011).  "In 2009 an estimated 120,000 children in Malawi were living with HIV, and more than half a million children had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS." (AVERT, 2011)  Last week I looked at Kenya and there was a similar trend among women.  More women were affected by HIV/AIDS than men.  I assume this is because of prostitution.  It is extremely sad to see how many children are affected by this disease.  It is overwhelming.

Bibliography:

AVERT. (2011). HIV & AIDS in malawi. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://www.avert.org/aids-malawi.htm

World Vision: AIDS Experience

While I was thinking about what to write about for my blog I remember something that I had done recently.  Sometime in the past few months, there was an event at my church that I attended.  It was called the AIDS Experience and was presented by World Vision.  It was an awesome experience.  They would give you a headset that told a story as you walked through the exhibit.  It put you in the perspective of a child who was affected by HIV/AIDS and lived in a developing country.  Personally, I got a child who lived in Kenya.  He lived off of the AIDS Highway, so the disease had a large impact on his life.  Eventually, his mom became sick and died from the "big disease" (that is what they called it in Kenya).  Years later, after being shunned by friends because they assumed he had the disease because his mom had it, he discovered that he was HIV positive.  It was a very powerful experience.  It was very humbling to look at the disease from the perspective of an innocent child.  It was very heart wrenching to imagine the pain he must of experienced.  He lost his mother and was shunned by society all at once.  To top it off, he was then diagnosed with HIV years later.  I know if that happened to me I would experience despair like I cannot imagine.  HIV/AIDS is impacting the world in ways we cannot even fathom. 

I have added a video that advertises the AIDS Experience, and also a link that has a little more information about the exhibit.  I remember that I walked through the Kombo track.

http://www.worldvisionexperience.org/

Did You Know?

This week I have decided to follow the theme that I began with the first part of the blog.  I am going to look at how HIV/AIDS has affected Kenya.  It did not take me long to discover that HIV/AIDS is literally wreaking havok in Kenya.  There are approximately 1.5 million people living with it, and around 1.2 million kids have been orphaned by the disease.  The HIV prevalence rate peaked in 2000 but has dropped drastically.  One of the reasons for the drop is the high death rates.  To me that was very shocking.  Thus far, when I have been conducting research for HIV/AIDS I have never seen the HIV prevalence rate drop because of high death rates.  It is awful. 

Bibliography:

HIV and AIDS in kenya. (2011). Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-kenya.htm