9/23 lecture

During Wednesday’s introduction to AIDS, there were a couple of points Ms. Thairu mentioned that I found new and interesting and would like to discuss in this blog entry. First, I was surprised by the diversity of the HIV virus. I knew from previous exposures to the virus that there were various strains that should be treated differently, but never have I imagined that there could be nine subtypes of the virus. This poses a challenge to global milestones such as the 6th Millennium Development Goal, Target 2 to grant universal treatment access, because the numerous strains may require unique treatments and the number of strains suggests that the virus may mutate to resist the current treatments available. Moreover, it is difficult to determine the right time for treatment, because starting treatment too early causes side effects and induces resistance from the virus as well. In addition, I found the part about children whose parents were infected with AIDS intriguing since most of my experience with AIDS came from working with AIDS orphans. I learned that for young children, it is difficult to determine whether they have AIDS because their CD4 count varies during age. Therefore, my algebra teacher could not have known if the child he adopted had AIDS. Prior to this lecture, I had believed that most HIV patients were infected through IV drug use or homosexual relationships. However, the pie graph that Ms. Thairu showed the class illustrated that 80% of the infection came from heterosexual relationships. I would guess that most people are not aware of that number, and if they were, they would have been more cautious in their relationships. In addition, I had never thought that AIDS, one of the leading causes of death, could have positive effects like revealing weakness in health systems and creating behavior changes in condom use, fewer concurrent partners, and later sex debut. Of course, the devastating effects of the disease outweigh these benefits, but perhaps the awareness of AIDS has helped us become more prepared for another possible epidemic and also helped fight other sexually transmitted diseases. In conclusion, I thought this lecture made me look forward to what I will learn later in this seminar.