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...
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...
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