blog 7

The two theories that I chose are The 'Hunter' Theory and the Contaminated Needle Theory. These two theories are ideas of how Humans got the HIV virus. I chose these two because they seemed the most realistic to me. I believe the 'Hunter' Theory sounds the most plausible to me though.

The 'Hunter' Theory is about people who hunted chimps that were infected with SIV that altered into HIV inside the hunters. The hunters contracted the SIV virus by getting blood from the chimp in an open wound or by eating the blood from the chimp. The SIV then transformed inside the humans to make the HIV virus.

The Contaminated Needle Theory is about the sharing of needles in Africa. The African healthcare professionals used the same needles to administer medicine because it would of been costly to have separate needles for everybody. So the theory believes that it transferred the SIV or HIV virus from one person to another. They use the example that one of the chimp hunters infected could have used the same needle with many other patients.

I think it would be important to know how the virus was transmitted because that could help us understand more about the disease. We would be able to know how the disease started which may be a way to show us how to cure it. It could also help us pinpoint other ways to help prevent the disease from spreading.

White Privilege

After reading the article I am going to have to disagree with Peggy McIntosh on a lot of her points. I believe that races and gender may not quite be equal but we are definately making a great effort to get there. We just elected the first Black President and we also had a Woman run for Democratic Canidacy. I believe that racism is something that will soon be in the past. I disagree with some of the points that she makes about how she can be around people of her race when she wants. I see that as obvious when the majority of the people living in the US are white. Same point goes for the fact that the same race will be shown on most of the front pages of the news paper. I see this as a far stretch way of viewing discrimmination, maybe it is but I don't know how they decide who is on the front page at the newspaper headquarters. I think some of the points she has come up with are a little far stretched and unreal.

I also find it hard to say that men are over privileged and women are under privileged. I don't think that men have it easier than women in the real world. I don't see why she thinks in order for women and men to have the same status that men must lessen theirs. It is almost as she is saying that it is impossible for women to reach the same status as men and that she has just given up. It is hard to gain status when you have taken the stand that men are just going to have a higher status and their is nothing I can do. From my experiences I have noticed that it is fairly close to equal. The places I have worked, I have seen males and females treated pretty equally but maybe my vision is obscurred because I am a male. Where I work there is a fairly equal amount of women and men with the same job status. I also understand that there may be some jobs out there where that is not true.

Blog 5

As of right now I don't know a whole lot about HIV/AIDS. I know that it attacks your immune system. I have heard that Magic Johnson has HIV and I heard that from the news when he came out to the public with it. I have heard from the news about how deadly it is in Sub-Saharan Africa. I have also heard about what it does and how you can contract it from sex-education that I had in middle school. I would like to learn how HIV/AIDS is being dealt with in the problem areas of the world and how we can help. Something that surprised me during the video that we watched on monday was the fact that people in South Africa have heard about safer sex practices but don't care to use them. It also bothered me that women were not allowed to tell the men that they must wear a condom when having sex. It is also really sad to hear that if women ask their husband to wear a condom, the husbands start to think that the wives have been sleeping around. It also surprised me how structural violence is putting the people at a disadvantage. The leaders of the countries are telling the people wrong information about HIV and AIDS. It is just so wrong for a leader who is suppose to be thinking of the people and who has the peoples support to lie to them about how to contract AIDS or HIV and what he thinks works. The number of new cases in Southern Africa was also very shocking. It is hard to imagine 50% of your population in poverty and that the one thing they can do that doesn't cost money and feels good is to have sex. It is also hard to believe the number of deaths and orphans that survive in Southern Africa and how 13 year old kids have to take care of their younger siblings.

Blog 4

Some global disparities that affect the spread of disease are racism, classism, and sexism. Racism can make it hard to get the right education or treatment for a disease because you may be thought of as a lesser due to having a different skin color. Classism affects the spread of disease because it is really hard to move up in class when you are not given the same opportunities or education as the wealthier classes. This makes it hard to get the education about necessary STI and AIDS. Sexism also plays a role because as we know some countries have male dominated societies which can be very harmful for the women in the society. The women are not educated and don't know how to protect themselves or the women can't suggest the usage of safer sex practices. I think my perspective from the USA makes me look at STI's differently because I have had the education and have easy access to barrier methods that some other countries do not have due to structural violence. Some countries have leaders who tell their people misinformation about AIDS because their leaders do not have the necessary education for STI's and AIDS. In the US we still do have the same broad causes of disease because there are still people in the US who do not have education about safer sex practices and the risks of not using safer sex practices.

Blog 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYLX78xTcoU

The ad conveys truth about the fact that chlymadia doesn't always have signs that you can see. They also said that 1 out of 10 people under the age of 25 who are sexually active may be infected. That statistic may be true to depending on the sample they recieved plus it sounds similar to the statistic we recieved in class on the number of cases and the age groups. The advertisement doesn't use the fear message unless the 1 out of 10 scares you. I don't believe it gives false information unless the statistic is wrong. The advertisement is aiming mostly at people under the age of 25. I believe it is an alright way to reach the target audience because it relates to the target market with partying in the club and popularity. I think general advertising and media can play a big part in the prevention of STI's because it will get out to more people and make sure that people have at least seen the information provided. It will also make it easier to be able to get help if you see ads about STI's because you will know what you can do and where to go to get help. It may also make it more socially acceptable to admit to STI's and treatment.

Blog 2

The Tuskegee study was about a study from 1932-1972 about the signs of syphilis in black males. They wanted to see if the black males had the same symptoms as white males. They lied and decieved the black population by telling them that they were getting treated when all they were recieving was vitamins. The apology by President Clinton was about what we have learned about the Tuskegee study which was how immoral and racist the study was. It is appolgizing for all the ways the US Government let down the black community in Macon County. It talks about how the government is to protect it's people which it failed to do for the people involved in the Tuskegee study. My reaction to the study is why did it take so long to apologize. I just find it hard that it took 25 years to finally admit to doing something as terrible as what happened in the Tuskegee study. I believe that inaugurating the first black president really helps gain back some of the trust that we lost in the black community. I think it helps the people from the study see that the US is changing and that everybody is equal. It helps to show that the US is changing toward equality of race and that we realize we did something wrong in Macon County and that we are sorry and we are earning the trust back from the black community.

Blog 1

The main topics of the podcast was about the spread of MDR TB and the risks of the new strand of TB. We should be concerned about MDR TB because it is a form of TB that is resistant to the cheap inexpensive drugs used to cure TB. Instead MDR TB has to use more expensive drugs and more powerful drugs to help cure the TB which will take longer than normal to cure. I personally am not to afraid because there are not very many cases of TB in the US. I also know that TB is very well monitored or screened by security before they can enter the US and now knowing about MDR TB they are able to recognize the multi drug resistant strand too. MDR TB has effected other treatment and management of diseases by making sure that infected people take the required medicine and the full course of the medicine so they don't create a new strand of the disease they already have.