Graduates from Women Alive's second annual HIV University Los Angeles (affectionately known as HULA) took to the streets on June 16th with a better understanding of the tools they can use to manage HIV in their lives.
When a woman is able to give birth, that is a gift. But when an HIV-positive woman is able to give birth, and the baby turns out to be negative, that is a miracle of medicine. It is imperative for us women to love and take care of ourselves enough, in order to be able to care for a baby before they are born and after.
After obtaining the HIV positive test result, nearly everyone will experience these two feelings: fear and shame. Some people may not be very familiar with these feelings while others may be painfully familiar with them. I think it varies depending on our own life experiences.
My name is Elizabeth Marte. I am the new outreach worker at Women Alive. First and foremost, I would like to brief you about myself. Born as a Latina of the Dominican Republic, I am a single mother of three children and soon I'll be a proud grandmother.
In 1974 there were approximately three million cases of gonorrhea and one hundred thousand cases of infectious syphilis in North America. . . . The situation has reached a critical point and requires immediate action, for VD is not only an unpleasant hindrance to the free expression of human sexuality, it is also a significant drain on the health of North Americans.
Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic the world has been quick to throw labels on persons who are infected with or at risk of contracting HIV. "Gay . . . IDU . . . Bi . . . Straight." Although it's easier for statistical purposes to lop everyone into one of these groups, unfortunately it doesn't work in the real world. Not everyone fits so easily into the little boxes that the CDC has set up for them.
Even after 20 years of hearing various HIV prevention messages, hundreds of news stories, and countless warnings about unprotected sex and IV drug use, approximately 40,000 individuals in the US will become infected with HIV this year. Shocking? Probably not.
One of the most important conferences of the year, the 8th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection (CROI) was held in Chicago during the first part of February. Attendees arrived with another year of hope for new treatments, advances on vaccines and a better understanding of HIV-infection.
Una gran preocupación entre personas viviendo con la infección del VIH y que ya han estado expuestas a mas de dos combinaciones o regímenes de tratamiento antiretroviral es cuanto tiempo duraran los beneficios de la combinación que están tomando.
The California Department of Health Services/Office of AIDS sponsored an invitation-only symposium in San Diego this August geared toward increasing community knowledge of new prevention efforts focused on persons who are already infected with HIV.
Spring
This issue is dedicated to the memory of Elsa Smith, Alberta Haynes, and Amy.
Cathy Olufs (formerly Elliott-Lopez) - Spring 2001
AIDS: Two Decades, 20 Million Deaths, and 40 Million Infections Later. The Battle Rages on. A look back at some of the triumphs and defeats during the past 20 years
Richard Jefferys (Reprinted from CRIA Update Vol. 9 No. 3 Summer 2000 issue) - Spring 2001
Since the first reported AIDS case in 1981, hundreds of thousands of people have participated in research related to this epidemic. From trials of new drugs to surveys and questionnaires, the thirst for knowledge has driven a massive effort to recruit people with HIV into such studies.
What are mitochondria? What do they do? And how does it affect me? Take into account that our bodies are made up of billions of tiny cells with different functions that help us live. The mitochondria are tiny organisms inside the cell, and their job is to produce energy for the cell.
Hi, I'm Judith Dillard. I'm forty-six years old and HIV positive. I really do believe that awareness is life and that knowledge is power. I am very happy to be a part of a wonderful staff of people here at Women Alive. I have been a member of Women Alive for several years, and in all of my wildest dreams I wouldn't have thought that I would be employed as one of the Treatment Advocates on the Women Alive team. I still have to pinch myself.
Today's modern woman has a multitude of roles and responsibilities: caregiver, wife, mother, employee, friend, and volunteer, among others. Twenty-six million of these American women are living with disabilities, varying conditions that make these roles even more challenging because of physical or mental limitations. Various diseases and conditions produce disability rates for both sexes which increase as age increases. Depending on the source, the word disability is defined in different ways.
Aside from the government appointing the president and making the usual decisions as far as taxes and the rest of the laws, they also control the bulk of the money for client services for people with HIV and AIDS.
My story begins on December 6, 1996 when my daughter arrived in Los Angeles traveling from Guatemala. She was 5 months pregnant at that time. The very next day she went to the clinic to get all of her prenatal tests done. She had taken an HIV antibody test in Guatemala only three months earlier. That HIV test result was negative. She could have declined to take it again at the clinic here in the U.S., but she decided to take it again anyway, since she believed she would test HIV negative.
I would like to share the experience of attending NAPWA's (National Association of People with AIDS) "Helping Communities Build Leadership Conference" held in Phoenix, Arizona in January 2001. The purpose of the conference is so that people, like me who actually have HIV infection and AIDS, can learn how to participate on various decision-making bodies, such as Boards of Directors of AIDS Service Organizations and HIV Planning Commissions, Community Advisory Boards, and any other group that makes decisions which directly affect my life and your life, and the quality of our lives.
Although the HIV/AIDS epidemic is now in its third decade, infected and affected older adults in the U.S. continue to be ignored and isolated. To address the concerns of HIV in later life, a group of healthcare and social workers, along with people infected with HIV, joined together to form the National Association on HIV Over Fifty (NAHOF).
I found out I was HIV+ in March of 1991. At that point in time the only thing I wanted was the cure! I proceeded to research and read everything I could about HIV. I was determined there was a cure out there. I finally read a book that suggested a treatment called Compound Q killed HIV. I searched and found a buyer's club that sold it. Spent several hundred dollars to get this side effect nightmare. I then had to go to New York to be able to get someone to give me this stuff. Afterwards I was as red as a lobster for a week with a $200 Benadryl habit. I was dumb enough to do this a second time, all in the search of a cure.
Programs for women, such as support groups, that include participants in the decision making process are key to surviving with HIV and preventing new HIV infections.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.