Compulsory testing - bad idea or not?

One of the Malaysian government's policies in response to the HIV/AIDS situation is introducing mandatory HIV/AIDS testing for any Muslim couples planning to get married. This policy has been received in a negative by many AIDS NGOs. The following clips show a short debate amongst government officials, the MAC chairlady and a social worker dealing with PLHIV

Mandatory HIV testing - part 1
Mandatory HIV testing - part 2

What are your thoughts towards this policy? Please share your views over it.

HIV-Positive Blogger Aims to Inspire and Spread Hope

HIV-Positive Blogger Aims to Inspire and Spread Hope

September 25, 2009

"It's an important message to get across that even if you have this disease, there's still hope for a long and happy life," 

Shawn Decker was just 11 when he was diagnosed with HIV and told he had two years to live. But on Oct. 3, Decker, now 34, will receive the Whitman-Walker Clinic's Courage Award at the opening ceremonies of the 23rd annual AIDS Walk Washington.

Decker has hemophilia and acquired HIV during a treatment for the condition. "I missed the last month of sixth grade because the school kicked me out because they were afraid I would infect other kids," said 

Decker, who grew up in Waynesboro, Va. His parents waged a successful fight to get Decker back into school, but for many years he closely guarded his secret.

After graduating from high school, Decker in 1996 was inspired by the story of Ryan White's courageous fight against AIDS and decided to disclose his HIV status. He began blogging extensively about his life. "I wanted people to see that somebody with the disease could be someone you like," he said. "For me, meeting the AIDS community and talking online completely changed my life."

In 2004, Decker married Gwenn Barringer, an AIDS activist and educator he had met in 1998. The couple speaks at various events about their relationship and how they safeguard Barringer from the virus. They chronicle their lives on a Web site, www.shawnandgwenn.com, and Decker is a columnist for POZ magazine. In 2006, he published his memoir, "My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure."

"It's an important message to get across that even if you have this disease, there's still hope for a long and happy life," said Chip Lewis of Whitman-Walker.

For information on AIDS Walk Washington, visit www.aidswalkwashington.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=299353.

Adapted from: http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art53838.html

To get to know more about Shawn Decker and his inspiring stories, 

Do visit : http://www.facebook.com/shawndecker  |  http://www.shawnandgwenn.com/  |

A Young Man Learns to 'Embrace' His HIV Status

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Carl, a 19-year-old Prince George's County resident, spoke with reporter Susan Levine about finding out that he was HIV-positive -- and about his life after the diagnosis. Excerpts from that conversation:

THIS STORY

Teen Voices of AIDS

A Young Man Learns to 'Embrace' His HIV Status: A Young Man Learns to 'Embrace' His HIV Status

I've now been diagnosed for two years. Well, not two years, going on two years. January 13th. I found out on January 13th, 2006. It was Friday the 13th. I never forget, Friday the 13th, what a horrible day to find out . . .

I do not know when or where I was infected. . . . All I can give is a time period, an estimated time period anywhere between the ages of 15 and 16.

If you are what they call an at-risk person, the average teen, you kind of know, you've got to know, you have a feeling, look, I'm doing certain things, I'm living a certain lifestyle that can be damaging in the future.

So kind of by the age of 17, I started thinking, you know, all my friends kept saying, we're all gonna go get tested, and we should all get tested together, but I lived with a certain fear because, a fear of knowing. You know, I kind of said to myself, I think I might have it, but I'm not sure.

To me, at the time, at the time, not knowing was waaaay better than knowing. Because if I didn't know, I did not have to deal with the pressures or, for lack of understanding at the time, you know, ending my life. You know, it was like a death thing, what I thought at the time.

I was very uneducated about the subject. You know, when things came up on TV about AIDS or HIV, when they talked about it in school, I kind of ran away from it. You know, cut the channel, cover my eyes, 'cause I was scared of, I was scared of the facts, I didn't want to know the facts, I wanted to stay ignorant to the subject . . . because as long as I was ignorant to the subject, I thought, Okay, I'm fine.

That kept me sane. I'm thinking, If I don't know anything about it, I'm fine. But if I knew what was going on, it made me feel more and more guilty about the things I was doing as a teenager.

I was afraid my mom was going to throw me out, she was going to disown me as her child. . . . I did not know what the outcomes could be, you know. We didn't grow up with the best of relationships, so I didn't know how she was going to feel if I was positive.

The bad part about it is that my mom was just as ignorant on the subject as I was. So when we got home, it was a circus, you know. She made me eat off of paper plates, eat from paper products. You know, I couldn't, like I said, I had three other brothers and sisters. I couldn't share any, any, you know, knives, forks, spoons that they shared. I drank from paper cups, paper knives, ate off of paper plates. Everything was separate.

It really hurt me, it really hurt me. Like I really pushed myself away from the family.

Over the past two years, I've grown a lot. I've become educated, I've become educated on the subject through my doctors, my social workers. . . . I've really become one with who I am, and I've embraced being HIV-positive. Sometimes I even forget I have it. I live a normal life. Like I say, I'm a college student. I have normal bills, normal student loans. . . . I live a life of a teenager.

Teenagers start rumors. So I had rumors from everywhere: I was starving my soul. I was bulimic. And then the big thing came out: Everyone said Carl had AIDS. The big rumor came out about Carl having AIDS.

I used to have pity parties for myself. You know, that was the hardest part. I would have a weekly pity party, where I would go and I would sob and it would be sob, play the blame game, feel sorry for myself. I don't have those anymore.

I've changed my sexual patterns and my sexual behavior, um, where at first I was afraid to ask for condoms.

I use them, I'm not afraid to use them.

To me, it's a part of you. It's like anything that's a part of you, from a scar on your hand . . . it's something you have to live with. It's something you have to say to yourself: "Am I gonna let this scar on my face control who I am as a person? Am I gonna let cancer dictate my life?"

As I said to myself, "Am I gonna let HIV define who I am as a person?" And I said to myself, "No, no, I'm not." Yes, I've seen people die of HIV, and I've heard the stories of people dying at a young age. But I've also heard the stories of healthy people who live long, healthy lives, who lived into their 40s or even into their 50s or late 30s, who took care of their selves and accomplished everything they wanted in life, you know.

Teens should know that HIV is real. And I think, you know, no matter how many commercials you put, how many billboards you put up, how many posters, how many people come to your school and talk, they need to know that it's real and it's out there. A lot of teens are naive to certain things. I know I was naive. . . . It's like . . . it's not gonna happen to me. And finally, when it happens, it's reality.

Let me tell you: The closest thing I got to HIV education in school, I don't even remember talking about HIV in health class. . . . A little segment in health class on what they called at the time STDs, that's about it. We didn't focus on HIV and AIDS in school, which to me is sad.

My parents and adults, they didn't think HIV is real in teenagers. It's like teenagers don't think HIV is real in the adults, parents don't want to believe that HIV is real in teenagers.

The way I was living, it took me getting HIV to turn my life around.

I think my main message to another teenager, one who would be at risk or not at risk: HIV is alive, is real. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you or can happen to your friend, your BFF, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. It's alive.

Carl spoke with The Post on condition that his last name not be used.

adapted from :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010702047.html

Branding HIV-positive people in the buttocks?

There was an article very recently published in The Straits Times about a Swazi politician's call for HIV-positive people to be branded on the buttocks.

The article is as follow:

May 27, 2009
HIV branding call fuels debate

JOHANNESBURG - SWAZI residents were asked on Tuesday to debate a politician's call for HIV positive citizens to be branded on the buttocks, which has sparked an uproar in the small mountain kingdom.

The Times of Swaziland asked for feedback on best ways to combat HIV and rights to freedom of speech after Timothy Myeni told fellow politicians that all Swazis should be tested for HIV and their backsides marked if infected.

'I have a solution to this virus. The solution will come from a law that will make it compulsory to test for HIV. Once you test positive, you should be branded on the buttocks,' the member of parliament said last week.

'Before having sex with anyone, people will then check the buttocks of their partners before proceeding with their mission,' the newspaper reported him saying.

Landlocked Swaziland is one of the world's poorest nations with the highest HIV prevalence in the world under the rule of Africa's last absolute monarch King Mswati III.

Mr Miyeni, who leads a popular gospel group, has stuck to his call for compulsory HIV testing but apologised for the buttocks branding suggestion.

'I am very sorry for saying HIV positive people should be branded, I did not know it would turn out like this. I have seen that the suggestion was very offensive and many think I was discriminating, so I withdraw my statement,' he said last week.

Reader responses will be published in the Times of Swaziland next Tuesday, the newspaper said in its online edition. -- AFP

source: The Straits Times

It's always very interesting whenever you hear interesting suggestions on what should be done about HIV/AIDS and the suggestion above is no doubt extraordinary.

We'd like to know what you think about the article above.


Do you think branding HIV-positive people is an effective way to prevent HIV transmission? Why?

And while you are thinking about it, do take some of these points into consideration:

• What are the main ways of HIV transmission?
• How does branding of HIV-positive people addresses these way(s) of transmission?
• What are the effects of branding towards the HIV-positive person?

Speak up and be heard. Every opinion counts :)

AIDS Myths and Misunderstandings

Hey Guys! Have you ever wondered why are they so many AIDS myths? When AIDS became known, it was a very mysterious disease that caused the death of many people. Back then, there were many unanswered questions about the disease, people reacted with fear and came up with stories to back up their fear. And surprisingly, most of these had to do with how easy it was to become infected with HIV, while the truth is most of these are not true.

Transmission Myths

Many people believed that HIV and AIDS could be transmitted by a mosquito bite, by sharing a drinking glass with someone with AIDS, by being around someone with AIDS who was coughing, by hugging or kissing someone with AIDS, and so on. Transmission can only occur if someone is exposed to blood, semen, vaginal fluid or mother's milk from an infected person. There is no documentation of transmission from the tears or saliva of an infected person.

Myth: A woman with HIV infection can't have children without infecting them.
Reality: Without any treatment, HIV-infected mothers pass HIV to their newborns about 25% of the time. However, with modern treatments, this rate has dropped to only about 2%.

Myth: HIV is being spread by needles left in theater seats or vending machine coin returns.
Reality: There is no documented case of this type of transmission.


Myths About a Cure

It can be very scary to have HIV infection or AIDS. The course of the disease is not very predictable. Some people get very sick in just a few months. Others live healthy lives for 20 years or more. The treatments can be difficult to take, with serious side effects. Not everyone can afford the medications. It's not surprising that scam artists have come up with several "cures" for AIDS that involve a variety of substances. Unfortunately, none of these "cures" work. A very unfortunate myth in some parts of the world is that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS. As a result, many young girls have been exposed to HIV and have developed AIDS. There is no evidence to support this belief.

Myth: Current medications can cure AIDS. It's no big deal if you get infected.
Reality: Today's medications have cut the death rate from AIDS by about 80%. They are also easier to take than they used to be. However, they still have side effects, are very expensive, and have to be taken every day for the rest of your life. If you miss too many doses, HIV can develop resistance to the drugs you are taking and they'll stop working.


AIDS Is a Death Sentence

In the 1980s, there was a very high death rate from AIDS. However, medications have improved dramatically and so has the life span of people with HIV infection. If you have access to antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and to medical monitoring, there's no reason you can't live a long life even with HIV infection or AIDS.


Myths About Medications

It has been very challenging for doctors to choose the best anti-HIV medications (ARVs) for their patients. When the first drugs were developed, they had to be taken as many as three times a day. Some drugs had complicated requirements about storage, or what kind of food they had to be taken with (or how long you had to wait after eating before taking a dose). The reality of ARVs has changed dramatically. However, there are still some myths:

Myth: You have to take your doses exactly 12 (or 8, or 24) hours apart.
Reality: Medications today are fairly forgiving. Although you will have the most consistent blood levels of your drugs if they are taken at even intervals through the day, they won't stop working if you're off by an hour or two. However, people taking Crixivan® (indinavir) without ritonavir need to be very careful about timing.

Myth: You have to take 100% of your doses on time or else they'll stop working.
Reality: It's very important to take AIDS medications correctly. In fact, if you miss more than about 5% of your doses, HIV has an easier time developing resistance and possibly being able to multiply even when you're taking ARVs. However, 100% adherence is not realistic for just about anyone. Do the best you can and be sure to let your health care provider what's going on.

Myth: Current drugs are so strong that you can stop taking them (take a drug holiday) with no problem.
Reality: Ever since the first AIDS drugs were developed, patients have wanted to stop taking them due to side effects or just being reminded that they had AIDS. There have been many studies of "treatment interruptions" and all of them have shown that stopping your ARVs is very likely to cause problems. You could give the virus a chance to multiply or your count of CD4 cells could drop, a sign of immune damage.

Myth: AIDS drugs are poison and are more dangerous than the HIV virus.
Reality: When the first AIDS drugs became available, they weren't as good as current medications. People still died of AIDS-related conditions. It's true that some people get serious side effects from AIDS medications, but the death rate in the US has dropped by about 80%. Researchers are working hard to make HIV treatments easier and safer to use.

source taken from www.thebody.com

Just What Does H1N1 Mean For People Living With HIV/AIDS?

As a swine flu virus appears to make its way across the world, so has misinformation and confusion about what the virus is and what sort of threat it poses, partcularly with people living with HIV/AIDS. Below is an extracted article taken from an interiew with Dr Gallant, a professor of Medicine and Epidemiology in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the John Hopkins University of Medicine, USA.

What is Swine Flu?

Swine flu is just a new strain of flu that has not been circulating in the population. As a result, nobody has any immunity to it. It's an influenza virus, just like other influenza viruses, but it's just one that human beings haven't seen before and as a result, our immune systems don't have any memory of it and that makes us a little more vulnerable.


When it comes to people living with HIV then, how does this translate? Are people with HIV more at risk for coming down with swine flu?

Not really. HIV-infected people are not in general at greater risk of influenza or flu than other people. And that's in part because the cellular immune system, the part of the immune system that the CD4 cells comprise, is not really responsible for fighting the flu. As a result, HIV doesn't make you more susceptible. For most people with HIV, the swine flu is pretty much the same as it would be with somebody without HIV.

The only exception to that is that because people with HIV are at higher risk for pneumonia and because flu can increase your risk of pneumonia as a complication of flu, people with low CD4 cells could be at higher risk of complications of flu if they do get the flu and that the most important complication is pneumonia.

So the bottom line is that if you're HIV positive, but you're on HIV medications and doing well and have a reasonably good CD4, then there's probably not much to worry about. But if you're quite immunosuppressed -- if your CD4 is well below 200 -- then there is a slightly increased risk, but certainly not the same level as the risk of some other diseases like tuberculosis or something like that where the CD4 cells are so important.


It sounds like people living with HIV have a greater risk of not gettting swine flu necessarily, but of suffering implications related to it if they have a low CD4 count.

That's right, yes. The risk of getting the flu is the same.


So we are assuming the viral load does not make a different here?

Probably not much. Again, the viral load could contribute a little bit to the risk of complicated flu, if you had a high viral load. Although, I suspect the CD4 count would be a little more important.

Certainly at our clinic we try to vaccinate everybody against the flu, but in general, if you look at most influenza seasons, we really don't see a lot of people getting really sick from the flu. We don't really see a lot of need for hospitalization. And certainly, we don't see a lot of deaths.

So I think that with respect to the swine flu, it shouldn't be much different given what we know so far about this strain now. Although, again, this is a new epidemic and we may get more information as time moves along.


Are there any precautions for HIV-positive people need to take to protect themselves from swine flu?

It's pretty much the same as for anyone else. Normally I would say get a vaccination, but that's not available yet for this strain of flu, so the next best thing you can do is:

• Try to stay away from people who are sick.
• Wash your hands -- because hand contact is a very common way of spreading this.
• If there's flu going on in your community and you can avoid being in crowded places with a lot of people, that probably would help.

But short of that, there's not really much you could do.


Well is there anything else you'd want to tell the HIV-positive people listening to the swine flu craziness that's now overwhelming the news?

For the most part, I've been reassuring my patients that they don't really have to think about this fludifferently than anyone else. And that's in part because most of my patients are on HIV treatment and have undetectable viral loads and have decent CD4 counts. So for them, it really is not a special issue. It's an issue we all have to be concerned about.

I think so far the news from the United States at least is that this is likely to become a bigger epidemic than it is today, but so far it seems to be fairly mild. But given what's gone on in Mexico, I do think we have to be certainly vigilant about it. And I think that we'll just have to see over the next few days how things play out.

Source taken from www.thebody.com

Do You Know?

What is the difference between HIV and AIDS?

The letters HIV stand for Human Immunodefiency Virus. This virus infects cells of the human immune system and destroys them or stops them from working. Someone whose immune system has been damaged by HIV is much more vulnerable to infections and cancers.

AIDS is short for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Someone with HIV does not have AIDS unless their immune system has been severely weakened. By this point, the person will have developed one of a number of particularly severe illnesses, or will have lost most of their immune system cells. 

What are the symptoms of HIV and AIDS?

It is not possible to reliably diagnose HIV infection or AIDS based on symptoms alone.

People living with HIV may feel and look completely well but their immune systems may nevertheless be damaged. It is important to remember that once someone is infected they can pass on HIV right away, even if they feel healthy.

As time passes without effective treatment, HIV weakens an infected person's immune system, making them much more vulnerable toopportunistic infections. These infections are caused by germs that are around us all the time but which can normally be fought off by a healthy immune system. Once HIV has broken down the body's defences, such infections can take hold and produce any of a wide range of symptoms - some of them very severe. Certain cancers also become more common when the immune system is weakened.

Such symptoms are, however, not caused directly by HIV, and they can't by themselves be interpreted as definite signs of HIV infection or AIDS. A diagnosis of AIDS requires signs of severe immune deficiency, which cannot be explained by any factor except HIV. This generally requires an HIV test.

The only way to know for sure whether a person is infected with HIV is for them to have an HIV test.

So does HIV by itself have any symptoms?

Some people who become infected with HIV do not notice any immediate change in their health. However, some suffer from a brief flu-like illness within a few weeks of becoming infected, or develop a rash or swollen glands. These symptoms do not indicate the development of AIDS, and they usually disappear within a few days or weeks.

"I have flu-like symptoms/swollen glands - could it be HIV?"

Many illnesses have flu-like symptoms or cause swollen glands. You cannot have HIV unless you have been directly exposed to the virus. HIV can be transmitted during sexual intercourse with an infected person, through contact with infected blood or breastmilk, or during unsafe injections or medical procedures. The only way you can find out whether or not you have been infected is to have an HIV test.

source : www.avert.org

What is HIV/AIDS?

What is HIV?

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system, disabling the body's natural protection against external infections. HIV only affects human beings and its presence can be detected through an HIV antibody test. HIV is highly concentrated in blood, semen and vaginal fluid but is present in very low concentrations in saliva and tears.. HIV is a very 'intelligent' virus. It can mutate and hide inside the human body, which makes it an almost invincible target. However, outside the human body, the virus is weak. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.


What is AIDS?

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. 'Acquired' means something that is not inherited. 'Immune Deficiency' means a weakened immune system that is unable to resist oncoming diseases. 'Syndrome' means signs and symptoms of an illness.

AIDS is the condition whereby HIV has destroyed a person's immune system, such that it is unable to defend the body from opportunistic diseases. Examples of common opportunistic infections in a person who has developed AIDS are Kaposi's Sarcoma, Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) and Tuberculosis.


What do HIV-positive people look like?

You don't know who has HIV. Anyone can be infected with HIV. It is not who you are, but more so what you do that puts you at risk of an HIV infection. HIV-positive people may look and feel healthy but at the same time, they are able to transmit the virus to others. It is not possible to identify an HIV-positive person based on how they look on the outside. Prevention is, by far, still the best method for avoiding HIV infection.

what are HIV symptoms

• Rapid weigh loss
• Dry cough
• Recurring fever or profuse night sweats
• Profound and unexplained fatigue
• Swollen lymph glands in the armpits, groin, or neck
• Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week
• White spots or unusual blemishes on the tongue, in the mouth, or in the throat
• Pneumonia
• Red, brown, pink, or purplish blotches on or under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids.
• memory loss, depression, and other neurological disorders.

Is there a cure?

HIV cannot be cured. There are ongoing research projects to find a vaccine that could prevent HIV infection. Once you are infected with HIV, you will stay infected for the rest of your life. There is a range of medications known as antiretroviral drugs that suppresses the virus's ability to replicate itself. As a result, there are less chances of HIV infecting other CD4 cells. These drugs, however, are not a cure for AIDS.

How is HIV transmitted?

There are 3 main modes of HIV transmission:

• Unprotected sex with an HIV-positive person
• Exchange of infected blood, for example sharing infected needles and syringes, blood transfusion or organ transplant
• Mother to child transmission during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding which presents a 30 percent risk but can be lowered to less than 10 percent with the use of a medication called AZT

How is HIV not transmitted?

• Social contacts such as hugging
• Sharing food and drinks
• Studying or working together
• Sharing public facilities such as public phones, swimming pools or public toilets
• Sharing beds or home equipment
• Mosquito bites

Adapted from Malaysian AIDS Council website