Blog #11 - Men's Infected Panel

I really enjoyed the Men's Infected Panel.  The speakers were men that had been through so much, but despite all that they had been through they seemed light-hearted and strong.  I really admired this about them.  One of them had had HIV for half of his life.  That fact alone was incredible.  He contracted HIV in the mid 80s, a time when it seemed like everyone that contracted HIV died shortly thereafter, and during this time he has also had two different types of cancer.  It seems like he has seen so much hurt in his life, but tonight he presented himself as someone that loves life and is ready for whatever else is thrown at him.

Another aspect that was very admirable was their dedication to raising awareness.  Each of them was very involved in spreading the word about HIV.  They were all speaking to multiple groups about ways that they could prevent HIV.  Each speaker seemed emotionally involved in their cause.  One speaker's little brother had contracted HIV recently, and it was evident that the he was very disappointed in himself.  It was almost like he had taken it as a personal failure on his part.  One of the other speakers expressed how raising awareness had been a central part of his life.  There was a point in his life where he had lost two people to HIV that he cared dearly about, and he was at the point where he was ready to give up and quit taking his medication.  However, he received a phone call soon thereafter from a support group that wanted him to give back to the HIV community by raising awareness.  The speaker's determination to spread the word about HIV/AIDS became his motivation for living.

Overall, I was very moved by the stories of the Men's Infected Panel.  I really admired all that they were doing, and all that they had been through.  It truly was testament of what the human mind, body, and soul can handle.

Did You Know?

This week I decided to look at HIV/AIDS in Guatemala.  Recently, I talked to a pastor at my church that returned from Guatemala, and things sound pretty bleak over there.  He told me that there is a large group of people that live on a landfill, and they spend their time looking for trash that is edible of salvageable.  There are a lot of children over there that sniff some sort of substance that makes their hunger pangs go away.  However, the consequences of this are pretty dire.  The substance destroys the neurons of the brain at an alarming rate, and the result is a large portion of the people that are like a zombie population.  They just wander the streets and it is pretty clear that there is little brain activity.  So, I was curious to see if on top of all of that that are having to deal with HIV/AIDS as well.

There are approximately 62,000 people that are infected with HIV/AIDS in Guatemala, of that number 40,000 are adult men and 20,000 are adult women (UNAIDS, 2009).  There is an HIV prevalence rate of .8% among adults aged 15-49 (UNAIDS, 2009).  There have been a total of 2,600 people killed by HIV (UNAIDS, 2009).  There was no data available for the number of children with HIV, or the number of children that have been orphaned by HIV.

References:

UNAIDS. (2009). Guatemala. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/guatemala