week 3- blunder

Hello fellow bloggers,

First I want to say thank you for all of you who are following my weekly issues. I appreciate all of your positive comments and take them all into consideration. I do have to make a clarification though. During my last blog, I wanted to interview a mother of an affected child to see what her reaction is... but frankly, I should know what her reaction is. I am a mother, just as many of you are... and it is no different. Yes you tend to your children in different ways while they are sick, but ultimately we love our little ones more than ourselves and would gladly put ourselves before them on any given day, sick or not!

On a personal level, my brother was recently out of remission from recurrent chronoblastoma. He's had a reoccurence in his right scapula and lung. His first diagnosis was in 2008, where it showed up on his scapula, three anterior and posterior ribs, and clavicle. In doing some research for the Immune system module, I read about an integrase inhibitor used for HIV tumor shrinkage and found where the same inhibitor is being used from non-HIV positive patients with great results. I couldn't wait to call my brother with this news. I shared this information with Jr. (as my family calls him) my brother and he shocked me when he said, "Claudia, I know its an antiretroviral drug that is used for HIV positive patients and its called, zentivir, I take an injection once every three weeks, its working amazingly well, but I can't get drunk if I wanted to!" (Harley Phillips) I was floored that my baby brother knew about what I'd been studying but is learning from a different perspective and the two just happened to mix. Its amazing what a little research can do for your education and your closeness to your family members. Just a little tid bit I thought was interesting and definitely exciting for me.

Well I have made a complete fool of myself this week. However, I think this blunder was one I don't regret. I was following in the chat room with Jim and Colin for 2 weeks now and you'll never guess... I wasn't on their roster. Badda bing! I'm shaking my head but I did learn something very interesting because they allowed me to stay just to read as the stories were told. I learned one important and interesting aspect. Did you know that... one can have the virus without transmitting it to their sexual partners, in fact, for many years. Less than one percent of the population has an immunity to such diseases, this one in particular being HIV/AIDS. In doing some research on the subject I found an article talking about this phenomenon. In the article, it states that 10% of Europeans are immune to HIV. Professor Christopher Duncan and Dr. Susan Scott from the University's School of Biological Sciences published research in the Journal of Medical Genetics, which attributes CCR5-A32 as the genetic mutation that allows Europeans to display an immunity to HIV. Some biologists think its link is small pox because of its viral connection. The CCR5-A32 blocks the virus from entering the cells of the immune system. Now if only they could figure out how to embrace this and possibly impact the rest of the HIV/AIDS community and develop a cure. (innovations-report.com)

Now with this said, we can deduce that there is possibly a cure we just haven't found it. But for some little ones who are coming into this world with HIV positive mothers there is hope. Did you know that the majority of cases from mother to child occur during labor and delivery. However, depending on the viral load, CD4 levels and anti-retroviral drug resistancies testing, the HIV pregnant patient can choose whether to delay medicating until the 2nd trimester, if they do not have symptoms. (aidsinfo.nih.gov)The delivery should be a C-section (not vaginal) but there is a high possibility that the baby will be asymptomatic and ultimately HIV negative if taken the proper precautions. Several treatments can and should be used conjuctively to reduce the transmission of HIV that include: 1.) a Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART.) If possible HAART should include AZT (Retrovir or Zidovudine) 2.) During labor and delivery the mother should receive an intravenous AZT. 3.) The baby should take liquid AZT every 6 hours for 6 weeks after birth. (aidsinfo.nih.gov)

A baby can be infected in utero, by breastfeeding and during labor and delivery, thus making the entire pregnancy very stressful and often times heartbreaking for the mother who can't enjoy giving nourishing life to her newborn for fear of causing them so much harm. (aidsinfo.nih.gov) One can only sit back and wonder, if creating an environment in which the disease is blocked from entering the immune system, such as with CCR5- A32 and there is the capability of bombarding the HIV positive host (mother) while she's growing an HIV negative (possibly negative) baby and there is no transmission between the mother and child; what is the crucial link that will create a cure for this disease?

until next time, fellow bloggers...

laterz



Works cited:

Biologists Discover Why 10% of Europeans Are Safe From HIV infection. (October 3, 2005).
Bubonic Plague and HIV. Innovations-report website. Retrievied September 22, 2009 from
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/lifesciences/report-41566.html

Telephone Interview- Harley C. Phillips. Telephone Interview. 18 September 2009.

Treatment Regimens for HIV positive Pregnant woment. (May 2009). AIDS infowebsite.
Retrieved September 22, 2009 from
http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/contentfiles/DrugRegimensPregnantWomen_FS_en.pdf