EKU Educate Society About the Existence of HIV Discussion
Reply:
With all the sex that occurs in the media, storylines don’t include characteristics with STI’s very often. I think this is because it’s sort of an embarassment thing. This sends many messages to both young women and men that STI’s aren’t normal, which isn’t true. It also does not provide any awareness for teenagers of the risks that you are taking by having sex. We see many sex scenes in a variety of different television shows and movies, however we hardly ever hear any sort of conversation about contraception to protect from STIs and STDs. For example, in the show Game of Thrones we see many different sex scenes but there are never discussions of safety or the repercussions of having sex. I honestly don’t think I have ever seen a show that does talk about sexually transmitted infections or diseases. This is alarming because in this day and age, television and technology is where teenagers spend 99% of their time. If there isn’t any awareness in the media, then it’s going to be extremely difficult for messages and risk factors to be spread for teenagers to learn about.
There is a big difference between HIV and AIDS. HIV is known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and is the causitative agent/virus of AIDS. HIV is spread by sex, sharing needles/syringes, and mother to child during pregnancy, birth, or breast-feeding. The most effective protection from HIV includes pre-exposure prophylaxis and reduces the risk of getting HIV by over 90%. Treatment for HIV include drugs called antiretrovirals which is most often a combination of three different drugs. This may keep the body healthy for years, and reduces the chances of transmitting HIV to partners. Sometimes, people with HIV may not experience any symptoms until the virus develops into AIDS. AIDS is known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and it affects the body’s immune system to the point where it becomes deficient in fighting off disease. There are different conditions that are associated with AIDS, and our cells play a huge role in the disease. There is not a cure for AIDS, however antiretroviral therapy may dramatically slow the disease’s progress throughout the body. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 79.3 million people have been infected with HIV and 36.3 milllion people have died from HIV. At the end of 2020, there were 37.7 million people living with the virus. As a result of reading chapter 16, I have learned that AIDS was first confined to three groups: gay males, Haitians, and people with hemophilia. This is crazy to think about because how could they only narrow it down to these three groups when the virus was spreading so rapidly. Essential steps one ccan take to reduce their risk of contracting HIV includes using condoms correctly and consistently, talk to your partner about their sexual experiences to ensure that they do not have the virus, and pre-exposure prophylaxis which is a drug that you take daily. This drug reduces the risk of contracting HIV by more than 90%.
