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mayoraaseiMade a presentation for "HIV in Africa" for microbiology.
Dumbfounded and blank-faced silence is not something one likes to be met with as one finishes her speech and asks enthusiastically, "So, any questions?" (Okay, I didn't ask that, group member did, but was still depressing)
Read up on more AIDS epidemiology than I would like to in a lifetime (dislike very muchly discussing statistical assumptions and limitations).
Was interesting though:
- 5% of Sudanese women knew condoms are effective prevention against AIDS
- 25% of pregnant Sudanese women never heard of AIDS (not, mind you, meaning they're not HIV positive, because...)
- Only 10% of existing HIV patients are diagnosed
- About 25 million people are infected in Africa: compare with Australia's population of 20 million
- About 4 million worldwide die each year from AIDS: compare with malaria's global annual mortality of 3 million. Malaria endemic regions overlap with AIDS epidemic regions (particularly countries like Kenya). ...AIDS epidemic tend to overlap with a lot of diseased areas.
On the way home from Redfern saw a great shepherd dog lazing on the footpath and as I wondered what it was doing, it looked at me and raised an eyebrow O__o;;; Never had a dog raise its eyebrow at me before (do dogs have eyebrows? Well, it's that extra furry tuft of...fur, above their eyes).
Also saw recently a Chinese newspaper article lamenting the treatment of HIV patients in a hospital. One of their prime examples was a HIV-positive man who needed a bone marrow transplant, and the hospital refused to give it.
WELL DUH!!! Giving bone marrow transplant to someone with depressed immunity equates to death sentence. In order for his body not to reject (any) transplant, doctors have to give him immunosuppressive drugs...which you just can't do if they're already at risk of severe immunosuppression. Also, the more opportunistic infection one gets in the latent incubation phase of HIV, the worse the prognosis (i.e. the faster AIDS develops).
Anyway, the article goes on to say that the guy died about 7 years later (which is pretty good for someone with a bone marrow problem and HIV), and the doctor had "hastily" written "AIDS" as major cause of death. The article then gasped, "But! What if it wasn't AIDS? What if it was another disease?"
*GASP* The "S" on the end of "AIDS" is there for a reason (no, it is NOT the plural for AID >_>). Syndrome is a collection of symptoms, not necessarily a defined disease. But technicality aside: NO ONE DIES UNIQUELY FROM AIDS. AIDS predisposes you to a number of VERY nasty things - infections from practically any infectious agent as well as cancer. IT DOES NOT CAUSE DEATH DIRECTLY. Death from AIDS always results from coinfections (usually plural) or cancer (yes, AIDS increases the risk of cancer - a bit like the "just when you thought it can't get any worse" syndrome).
...==; Anyway, stoopid sensationalisation. On the other hand the issue they were trying to present does actually exist and is quite serious - discrimination in all sorts of societies against those who have HIV. More than 50% of people in a survey by Ministry of Health Uganda said that if they were diagnosed HIV+, they would hide it from their family members, which is exactly why despite being faithful, some 80% of women who are infected with HIV are married.
Stupid men who sleep around.
Dumbfounded and blank-faced silence is not something one likes to be met with as one finishes her speech and asks enthusiastically, "So, any questions?" (Okay, I didn't ask that, group member did, but was still depressing)
Read up on more AIDS epidemiology than I would like to in a lifetime (dislike very muchly discussing statistical assumptions and limitations).
Was interesting though:
- 5% of Sudanese women knew condoms are effective prevention against AIDS
- 25% of pregnant Sudanese women never heard of AIDS (not, mind you, meaning they're not HIV positive, because...)
- Only 10% of existing HIV patients are diagnosed
- About 25 million people are infected in Africa: compare with Australia's population of 20 million
- About 4 million worldwide die each year from AIDS: compare with malaria's global annual mortality of 3 million. Malaria endemic regions overlap with AIDS epidemic regions (particularly countries like Kenya). ...AIDS epidemic tend to overlap with a lot of diseased areas.
On the way home from Redfern saw a great shepherd dog lazing on the footpath and as I wondered what it was doing, it looked at me and raised an eyebrow O__o;;; Never had a dog raise its eyebrow at me before (do dogs have eyebrows? Well, it's that extra furry tuft of...fur, above their eyes).
Also saw recently a Chinese newspaper article lamenting the treatment of HIV patients in a hospital. One of their prime examples was a HIV-positive man who needed a bone marrow transplant, and the hospital refused to give it.
WELL DUH!!! Giving bone marrow transplant to someone with depressed immunity equates to death sentence. In order for his body not to reject (any) transplant, doctors have to give him immunosuppressive drugs...which you just can't do if they're already at risk of severe immunosuppression. Also, the more opportunistic infection one gets in the latent incubation phase of HIV, the worse the prognosis (i.e. the faster AIDS develops).
Anyway, the article goes on to say that the guy died about 7 years later (which is pretty good for someone with a bone marrow problem and HIV), and the doctor had "hastily" written "AIDS" as major cause of death. The article then gasped, "But! What if it wasn't AIDS? What if it was another disease?"
*GASP* The "S" on the end of "AIDS" is there for a reason (no, it is NOT the plural for AID >_>). Syndrome is a collection of symptoms, not necessarily a defined disease. But technicality aside: NO ONE DIES UNIQUELY FROM AIDS. AIDS predisposes you to a number of VERY nasty things - infections from practically any infectious agent as well as cancer. IT DOES NOT CAUSE DEATH DIRECTLY. Death from AIDS always results from coinfections (usually plural) or cancer (yes, AIDS increases the risk of cancer - a bit like the "just when you thought it can't get any worse" syndrome).
...==; Anyway, stoopid sensationalisation. On the other hand the issue they were trying to present does actually exist and is quite serious - discrimination in all sorts of societies against those who have HIV. More than 50% of people in a survey by Ministry of Health Uganda said that if they were diagnosed HIV+, they would hide it from their family members, which is exactly why despite being faithful, some 80% of women who are infected with HIV are married.
Stupid men who sleep around.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 08:23 am (UTC)Is that to say women married without disclosing their HIV status to the other party?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 08:54 am (UTC)Basically it means that the main method in which women got infected with HIV in Africa was because their husband contracted HIV from sex workers, and there's also a culture thing where women had no right to refuse having sex with their husband =_=
no subject
Date: 2006-05-05 09:08 am (UTC)if I did that survey, I think I would answer "I would tell my family that I was not faithful to my partner so that they would all be sad, and so I could break my spouse's heart".
and if I also had HIV, I'd completely ignore my survey response and go home and either: tell my family.. or not tell my family. but I'd respond like that in the survey so I would look like a prick, regardless ;D