I am not exactly sure how I am supposed to feel about having HIV. Scared. Terrified. Disappointed. Maybe stupid too. Stupid to believe that I was finally in control of my drug addiction. I thought I was over the drugs. I was five months sober and ready to apply for some jobs, so I can get my life together for once, but I was weak and drugs feed on that weakness. I am usually careful about sharing needles, but when you are desperate, intelligence isn’t around to help you make the right choices. I thought I was sick because of the drugs, so I stopped cold turkey, but I just got so much worse, but I didn’t think it would be HIV! All this stresses me out and makes me wanna take more drugs. How am I supposed to tell my mother who is my only saving grace and the only one that has truly supported me? I could only imagine her reaction when she finds out I took drugs again and got HIV because of it. I don’t even want to go to the doctor’s anymore. I could feel them judging me, looking at me as though they just expected me to catch HIV sooner than later. How can I face anyone? …show more content…
The doctor talks about CD+ T Cells and different types of medications and my head is spinning. I kind of understand that I don’t have AIDs and with the medication I should be okay, but I don’t know. I’m not sure how I am supposed to afford all of these medications or how I could hide all the medications from the people I know. Also, how am I supposed to have kids. I know my life hasn’t been on the best track, but I still have dreams of having my own family. Will my babies also have HIV and deal with the consequences of my actions? I wish I could ask someone, but I’m scared. Not only that, but how can I expect anyone to want to be with me in the first place once they find out about my status? I wouldn’t even want to touch
Drug Addiction. It is a problem that has infected many of our communities, and the media is responsible for helping to shed light on this growing problem. But what happens when drug addiction is not covered in the same manner amongst all demographics? One issue that encapsulates this is drug addiction on the two shores of Staten Island.
million Americans live with it everyday. Many of you may wonder: what makes this disease so dangerous? Well, out of all these infected people, one in eight are not even aware that this virus is currently multiplying in their bloodstream (CDC). This ignorance stems from the fact that HIV initially lies latent in the body for up to ten years. After this period, it becomes a sneaky killer by destroying the white blood cells of the immune system. When your body no longer has a
Drugs and alcohol are a topic coming out of every American's mouth. They are a household topic. Many people know the dangers and trouble that alcohol and drugs bring, yet it is what most people spend their money on. When you ask them about why they do drugs and alcohol, they reply that they like the feeling it gives you. The feeling that lasts 1-2 hours? Maybe you want to give up the amazing life God has gifted you with, but I don’t want to do that.
Get In Care: Finding a doctor is vital as is a good counselor. Take time to read and understand what HIV is all about, how it affects you and those around you. Taking your medication is vital in helping you stay
HIV is a virus that causes AIDS. These viruses enter the healthy body and destroy T-cell, while they reproduce themselves. In the meantime, the immune system gets attack and began to breakdown. The immune system help defend the body from flu, cold, virus, germs, infection and bacteria. Because the cell cannot keep fighting the infection, immune system weakens. This is the stage where AIDS is diagnose and taken over when the illness become too severe. HIV is passed only through direct contact with another person's body fluids, such as blood, sexual contact, sharing needles or syringes, birth or breast milk. You don’t get AIDS from tears, saliva or touch, however you can’t tell who has AIDS or HIV that’s why we need to be careful and get tested. To make sure we are not positive but if positive we can start treatment right away. There is no cure for HIV or AIDS, but new medicines can help people live long. New cocktail also know as drugs make it possible for people who are HIV positive to live for years without getting AIDS. There are support group and foundation to help. We should get tested for AIDS at least once in our life or every time there is a new partner. We can’t tell who have AIDS and study show 1 out of 8 is living with HIV and not know it. Getting tested is fast and easy through blood or saliva and takes about 20 min for result. They are so many reason why everyone should get tested it also to help protect yourself and your love one from getting this virus. Catching this virus early can help able to rebuild your immunity, with medicine for example ARV. Having this virus is not the end of the world. As long as this virus is under control it can lead to a happy and longer
In the United States, HIV (infection) has changed remarkably over the past 30 years. According to CDC.gov “At the end of 2013, 498,400 African Americans were living with HIV (40% of everyone living with HIV in the US), and 1 in 8 did not know they were infected.” More than 44,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in 2014. HIV is currently a disease of greater demographic diversity, affecting all ages, sexes, race and involves various transmission risk behaviors. At least 50,000 new HIV infections will continue to be added each year, however, one-fifth of persons with new infections may not know they are infected, and a substantial proportion of those who know they are infected are not engaged in HIV care. It is tragic that there are a huge number
HIV is a sexually transmitted disease that attacks the body’s immune system by diminishing CD4 cells that help prevent and fight illnesses. HIV is a virus, more specifically a retrovirus that transcribes its RNA into the host cell’s DNA, and is spread by a transfer in bodily fluids namely drug injection and condomless sex. As the disease progresses into acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), the virus continues eliminating CD4 cells until the immune system becomes virtually ineffective [5]. Scientists first identified HIV in 1985 in response to the AIDS crisis plaguing the United States [6]. With no cure yet available, those affected with HIV must rely on antiretroviral drug therapy to decrease their chances of developing AIDS [7].
(Me) Even though HIV is a scary disease there are medicines that can stabilized your immune system. I would recommend first for you to complete some research on living with HIV. There are a lot of people who have become infected and live normal lives.
Most people get the virus by having sex with someone who has HIV without a latex condom. Even with most condoms you can still get this and other STDs. Another way of getting it is by sharing drug needles with someone who has this virus. Early symptoms include fever, rash, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, mouth ulcers. Later symptoms of HIV include rapid weight loss, Extreme and unexplained tiredness, Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week, Pneumonia,Memory loss, depression, and other neurologic disorders. If you leave this untreated for too long it can make your immune system weakened enough to where you can get types of cancer and deadly infections. For the first test it's just a simple blood test, then they do another blood test but with the western blot test.HIV doesn't have a cure but it can be slowed down with types of medicine. The most likely way to prevent this is to use a condom but you could also use the drug Truvada, plus more. Every time you get this virus you will always have symptoms, some worse than others as i explained near the beginning. The biggest consequences of HIV are allowing other disease an easier access into your body because HIV damages the immune system. More than 1.2 million people have HIV in the U.S. alone. In 2005 - 2014 the rate of people having Aids lowered
From the beginning of time we have these pre-conceived notions that doctors are a secure haven. The relation between the drugs and the dealer greatly resemble the relation between pharmaceuticals and physicians. Society views the doctors as the problem, but if you dig deeper, you’ll notice that it relies on the pharmaceutical industries. The FDA approves these drugs that could benefit you in one aspect, but it can also wreak havoc on the potential consumers. Although, pharmaceutical drugs aren’t always defective, they allow the pain to subside, even if the relief is temporary. The drugs that are prescribed are not curing disease, but merely concealing the symptoms.
This is also the same exact way how it spreads. Some of the symptoms involve not being able to fight off viruses for a few weeks, some people don’t even show signs for 4 years. Left untreated can HIV can become aids after a few years it will also wear down your immune system more and more after time. They look at the antibodies and what they are attacking, but normally it takes several months for the number of antibodies to match the virus. The virus can be treated by using the following items, protease inhibitors, integrase inhibitor, etc. The way one can prevent contact the disease is by avoiding sexual contact with someone who you know has HIV, also not come to contact with their bodily fluids like blood. HIV is curable in its early stages before it becomes to advanced. Sometimes the disease has symptoms but really isn’t noticed though the first few years. The consequences are not being able to fight off diseases thanks to the immune system being weakened by the virus. The disease is also some what common in
HIV is a disease with multiple stages of severity. Persons who acquire this disease may unknowingly be a carrier for years without realizing it. At early onset of acute HIV infection (Stage 1), a few weeks after exposure, viral replication is rapid and there may be mild, generalized flulike symptoms such as low fever, fatigue, arthralgia, and sore throat (VanMeter, 2014). Following this brief illness, if any, of stage I the person would then go into Stage 2 or clinical latency. This period can also be referred to as asymptomatic HIV infection due to the low levels of HIV reproductions. For some, this period can last many years to a full decade or beyond, but without treatment many will go through this phase quickly. Those that test
War On Drugs This is supposed to be a free country. I don't see that it would harm you or anybody else if someone smokes a few joints a week in moderation. What is the harm done to you? Is this enough to take fathers and mothers away from children? I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the draw but to say that drug users might abuse the stuff and cause problems for their family or neighbors is not very far from saying that because you have a knife in your kitchen draw that you might choose to use it to cause trouble for you family or neighbors. Please tell me, by what reason should marijuana be illegal and please speak from first hand experience if you can. Isn't twenty years of doing the same thing long enough? Isn't it time to step back, gather
Many individuals are afraid to get tested for HIV and are afraid of the stigma associated with HIV when disclosing their status to partners. They are often subject to their own psychological and other social stress which often hinders appropriate management of the infection. This is not always without reason as disclosure of an HIV status can lead to exclusion from ones family, friend-circle or dismissal from the workplace. However disclose to a family member, partner or friend can provide psychological and later physical support. Also the fear of individuals they love finding out that they are HIV positive may lead to anxiety or isolation. Non-disclosure can often affect healthcare and management of the persons’ disease as the fear of dependents finding out will require the individual to hide taking the medication and use personal funds to pay for treatment to avoid the medical insurance company from informing co-dependants (Alonzo & Renolds 1995).
What does it mean to be HIV positive these days, how do we get it, and does it always lead to mortality? In the past, if someone was diagnosed with the virus, there was a very slight chance that they were going to survive it (There’s a substantial increase in HIV patients being treated compared with the 1990s). However, with the ever-changing science and medical techniques, this is not the case anymore. New drugs are constantly being developed to prevent the progression of the virus to AIDS. These drugs target different steps of its life cycle, depending on the mechanism of the drug. The virus is transmitted sexually (seminal or vaginal fluids), or through