BE IN THE KNOW ABOUT AIDS!

I read the post on the young lady who passed away from pneumonia, and like most of your bloggers i am very saddened by the loss of someone so young.
A few folks were commenting on how quickly she died and I wanted to share some info on that issue. (BTW-I dont know her and am not associated with her case in any way. I’m just speaking from professional experience and available data).
The HIV virus affects everyone differently.For persons who do not receive treatment it will take, on average, 5-7 yrs to progress to AIDS after infection. In women it takes an average of 12 yrs to progress to death from time of infection.While in men, it takes an average 10 yrs to death. These are averages, so it can be much shorter or much longer.
Once treatment is initiated, and taken as prescribed, the lifespan can be extended significantly and approaches normal – of course this will depend on one’s age at diagnosis, stage of illness at time of diagnosis, and the sub- type of virus you have.

This young lady Ashley, and others who become infected with HIV and then quickly progress to AIDS, are called “rapid progressors”. That means they have a virus that has mutated and is very virulent (aggressive). This subtype will wreak havoc on the immune system in short order. Someone with this mutation can move from new infection to full blown AIDS in under 2yrs. Most recently, I saw someone who based on testing history was negative a year earlier, but their CD4(t-test) came back at 155!!!! And let me tell you, this person looks good. i mean good! beautiful skin, body size, etc etc. But this person has AIDS and will die sooner than a counterpart with a ‘normal’ HIV strain.
On the other hand I’ve seen folks who have been positive for over 10yrs (one for almost 30yrs) and don’t even need medication! They are called “long term non-progressors”. And they too look great. no spots, weight loss, hair changes etc., but they do have other medical issues, just none of the AIDS signs people looking to see.
Unfortunately, there is evidence suggesting HIV is getting more virulent (aggressive) over time. So expect to hear of more people who get infected and drop out in no time.

Met, it’s also important to let folks know about treatment resistant virus. What’s that? that is a virus strain from someone who is HIV positive but not taking the medication properly and so the drugs are no longer working for them – they have developed resistance. This resistance can be to an individual drugs or entire classes (groups). If you get infected by this person, they pass on a treatment resistant HIV subtype to you
ou get infected by this person, they pass on a treatment resistant HIV subtype to you and it means that you cant take those drugs that they are resistant to, because they wont work for you either. Here in the States that’s bad news but not really because we have access to a wide range of treatment options. In Jamaica and the other islands (and Africa), this is a huge problem.
For example, there are only two cocktails available (each includes several drugs) in Jamaica, so if you acquire a virus that’s resistant to one of the key medications in the first cocktail, it means you have to start with the second cocktail. Which effectively means you will have a shorter time on treatment, which could mean shorter survival.

mi dun talk now. Just please spread the word MET. It’s out there! Anyone can get it, but unfortunately it affects the poor (ghetto people) and Black people more. We can blame this on history, conspiracy, the system, monkeys (lol). Whatever we want. But at the end of the day, it is spread by the behaviors we engage in on an individual basis, so we need to just wise up and wrap it up.
(OH, and if you can get the word out to our MSM friends that they are at incredibly high risk. In jamaica, it is 1 in every three men who have sex with men that is HIV positive. So, these chicks who love to go down to jamaica and own up the lickle dancer yout dem…and other questionable characters…need to be careful ).
Bless up
Me1