HIV Crossover Theories...

The Hunter Theory is that somewhere in Africa, groups of Hunter's killing chimpanzees for food contracted SIV, and became infected with it. Given the high mutation rate of HIV, it is likely that HIV evolved from SIV to infect humans. This is called zoonosis, when a disease crosses the species barrier, and it is a well documented phenomenon. I think that the contaminated needle theory goes along with the Hunter theory, but only so far as how HIV spread so quickly.

The use of unsterilized needles on multiple people is an excellent way to spread disease. I think that the "Heart of Darkness" theory goes hand in hand with the Hunter theory. It is basically the same thing, but in different circumstances. Zoonosis of SIV by consumption of infected chimpanzee meat.

Although, I must say that my favorite theory is the Conspiracy theory about HIV - and by favorite I mean the most ridiculous and fun to talk about. I think it is ridiculous to believe that a virus would be releases on purpose to target a specific group of "immoral" individuals. There is no way the government could be this stupid. Scientists working for the government know that viruses mutate - there would be no way to insure that only black people and gay people were the only ones infected. After all, we are all the same species. This theory ignores the clear similarities between HIV and SIV, and that the first cases were in Africa in 1959 or even earlier.

I think that it is very important to know how HIV evolved and what it evolved from. That knowledge allows us to track it's movement and rate of mutation. We can see the pattern it takes, and hopefully use this knowledge to prepare for the future. As well as to keep trying to make a vaccine or cure.

About White Privileges

In Peggy McIntosh's article, she talks about how white people in our society are at an advantage to people of other skin colors. That makes sense to me. Although we may think that racism is dead... it isn't. Due to that simple fact, non-white people are still discriminated against. This puts them at a disadvantage. Wherever there is a disadvantage, there must be an advantage. Thus we have the white advantage.

While I agree with her main points, there are some parts of her article that I do not agree with. For example, in her list of white advantages, she lists "I can swear, or dress in second hand cothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the ba morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race." I think certain behaviors, such as swearing and certain clothing styles do connotate the bad morals and illiteracy of white people. Maybe not white people that she's used to, but there certainly exists the term "white trash."

She also mentions that there is not anything to cover blemishes unless you are white. Maybe she needs to take a walk down the makeup isle and see all of the different shades of foundation and cover up that they have. Now most of my disagreements with her are on small points. But maybe this is my unknown white advantage speaking, but she seems to exaggerate on some of her points. Nonetheless, she brings up a good point that there is still a disparity between our perceived races and that something needs to be done about it.

I think that this disparity between races, mainly the white privilege (and the fact that white people don't realize there is one) plays a huge role in the spread and treatment of HIV/AIDS. As noted in class, the main burden of HIV is in subsaharan Africa - where there are people of color. However, the main areas of spending for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention are in places like the US and Europe. Adressing large systems of opression is very important when dealing with sexual health. We need to realize that the -isms are still alive and well. And we need to take that into account when forming policies and education programs for sexual health so that everyone gets what they need to be healthy.

What I know about HIV/AIDS...

Well, being a biology major, I know some of the information surrounding the virus itself. HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is transmitted through bodily fluids such as blood. It is a retrovirus - this means that it carries RNA and when it infects a host cell, its RNA is copied by reverse transcriptase into our own DNA. Basically this causes our own cells to use our mechanisms for transcription and translation to make more copies of the virus. Then the host cell dies and the new viruses go and infect new cells. HIV affects the immune system because the cells it targets are T-cells. It's actually kind of a "smart" virus because T -cells it are used by our immune systems to kill other viruses and bacteria (can you really kill a virus...?).

I know HIV was originally thought to be a "gay disease" because of its first appearance in gay men. It was a highly stigmatized issue at the time with some people saying it was some sort of gift from god because it was kiling all of the right people. I understand that it was a different time period back then, but I just can't understand that a person deserves to die because they happen to have a different sexual orientation. I think there are few things that really merit death.

When it first came out, it was thought that only gay people could get it. I personally don't see how anyone could imagine a pathogen that would infect people based on sexual orientation would be possible. I think it's a tragedy that so many people (especially hemophiliacs) were infected because of blood or platelet trasnsfusions. But then again at that time, they didn't know what the cause of this mystery disease was... And here we see another huge mistake at that time - a lack of finding for research AIDS epidemic because it was such a stigmatized issue. AIDS is an emergent disease, and it has very high rates in Africa and SE Asia - yet again we see the north-south divide. And it is very hard to get prevention/treatment, or even testing in these regions.

I learned this info mostly from high school biology and health classes. However, I'm looking forward to learning more about the HIV virus in biochemistry, as well as more about the AIDS epidemic in this class.

On one last note, what really shocked me in the videos we watched was the interviews with the African women who got AIDS from their husbands. I couldn't believe it when they were talking about how they tried to get their husbands to use condoms... their husbands accused them of cheating, and often times beat them for questoning their authority... completey awful...

The North-South Divide

I feel that the North-South divide is the source of a huge disparity for STDs/AIDS. As we've seen in class, equatorial Africa and South East Asia are always the areas with high prevalence for the disease we're looking at. As Americans, I think we don't really appreciate what we have. We have the resources to provide healthcare - maybe not for all, but for most - and we have funding for disease prevention and research. And I think we take this for granted. I know that if I ever got an STD, it wouldn't be a problem for me to just make a doctor's appointment, get a diagnosis, and get treatment (if possible). But this becomes much more difficult in less developed countries where a lot of people don't have doctors and hospitals in their small town; where treatment, and even education are much harder to come by. Personally, I think Americans who have never been to a third world country or bothered to learn what we are learning in class are blind to how much more difficult disease prevention and treatment is in equatorial Africa and SE Asia. That is why there exists a north-south divide - because maybe we don't really realize there is a divide in the first plalce... Maybe ignorance isn't bliss...