And the Band Played On

"And the Band Played On" was a film based on real life events that occurred during the 1980's when Aids was first being discovered. It was a really sad yet interesting film. It talked about how aids was mostly seen in gays and how they didn't even know that they had it. The fact that really killed me was that since doctors didn't want to waste their money looking for the retrovirus they let more and more people keep dying. It just amazes me that people care more about their pathetic money than helpless dying people. How can people be so mean? Which leads me to to this famous quote that Dr. Dennis Donohue once said," When the doctors start acting like businessmen, who do people turn to for doctors." What strong words although it still wasn't enough for the people to do anything about the virus. the film also included many important dates that went down in history. For example 1984 when Dr. Gallo was said to have discovered the retrovirus. Not to mention that the blood supply was finally tested in 1985 after so long. Although by the time it was tested many people had already died. It's just so crazy how people can be so ignorant and careless to such a serious problem. they could have done numerous things to stop this virus before it wiped out so many lives. They could have tested the blood supply earlier and they could have given the CDC the proper equipment that they needed so that they could have found the virus earlier. so many things could have been done but yet no actions were taken. Until years later when things got worse. Only then did they decide to do something about it.

Cryptococcal Meningitis

Opportunistic infections are infections that are not usually seen in a healthy immune system. Its is rare in patients because its not suppose to cause disease in an immune system that is healthy and working properly. When a person starts to develop an opportunistic infection it means that they most likely have HIV. An example of one opportunistic disease would be Cryptococcal Meningitis. Cryptococcal Meningitis is a fungal infection that causes inflammation in the brain and the spinal cord. So it mainly affects the nervous system. It is also dangerous because it can spread throughout your body. Although it is not very common. Symptoms may include stiff or painful neck, fever, headache, and mental confusion. It is considered a life threatening infection because of the inflammation occurring in the brain and the spinal cord area. The treatment commonly used for this infection are usually antibiotics. Even though the disease seems to be very serious it is not a fatal disease.

AIDS

As you already know Aids stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Aids is a disease that is caused by the HIV virus. There are 2 ways that a person can be considered to have Aids. A person is diagnosed with Aids when they start to develop 1 or more opportunistic infections and if their number of Helper T cells are below 200. There are three stages of Aids that often go unnoticed. The first stage is just infections, people may just develop symptoms like the flu. People may think that its simply just the flu but its way more serious than that. The second stage is called the Asymptomatic stage. At this point no signs or symptoms can be shown for long periods of time including up to 10 years. Just because the sickness has gone way it doesn't mean that a person no longer has Aids. Once infected with the HIV virus you will continue to have it throughout your entire life because it is not curable. The final stage of Aids is when a person develops severe oppertunisic infections and their system is weak and vulnerable to anything at this point. Some oppertunistic infections include Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, Toxoplasmosis, Candidiasis, Cytomegalovirus, and the list goes on.

ALL About HIV

HIV is a very serious retro virus that has wiped out an extremely large amount of people. It stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It was first discovered by the French, Dr. William Rozenbaum although there was a battle going on about who the discoverer really was. When Rozenbaum first discovered the virus he shared his evidence with Dr.Gallo, who studies retroviruses. When Gallo saw the evidence he decided to take it and take credit for it. He did but eventually the french sued and so it is now known that Rozenbaum was the major discoverer of the virus along with Don Francis. Since it is a retrovirus it works backwards from mRNA to DNA so it is really hard for scientist to find s.a cure because it replicates really quickly. Its almost impossible to ever catch up with it. The main and only cells that HIV targets are the Helper T cells other wise know as CD4+cells.Why? Because that's how it weakens your immune system and eventually ends up killing you

Our little people (Immune system)

The Immune System is made up of many things that help out our body fight off various diseases. The first layer that acts like a defense system is the skin. Since the skin is Non-Specific it works the same against fighting off all infections. In order for the immune system to function properly it needs help from other cells. For examples,there are the B cells,the Helper T cells and the Killer T cells. The B cells produce antibodies, antibodies are proteins that attach to antigens so that the body can identify them. Antigens are the weapons that pathogens use. A pathogen is any foreign particle that enters the body and are a threat. Thats what the body works on to defend against. The Helper T cells help inform the immune system about what is going on in the body. Like if its being attacked by viruses or bacteria. So they are the ones that make sure cells do their jobs and respond to the attack. The Killer T cells simply just kill good cells that have gone bad or have been infected. All theses cells work together in your body to make sure that you don't get sick. Thus, protecting us from viruses and bacteria. The only difference from bacteria and viruses is that bacteria is alive and viruses are dead. The only way for a virus to survive is to take over the host of a cell.

The Begining

Aids has been around for about more than 20years. Africa is by far the most affected area and it is often predicted that it originated there. Although Aids was first beginning to be seen in the early 1980's it actually goes back a couple years before. The virus was said to have jumped from the monkey species(chimpanzees) onto humans. It is not known how or why but it later appeared in the U.S. in about 1981. The first cases were seen in New York and California. Many homosexual men started developing rare opportunistic diseases that were unexplainable. Of course around this time people thought that only gays were vulnerable to this disease so they decided to call it GRID. Other wise known as Gay Related Immune Deficiency. The name was later changed to Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) because children started developing the disease somehow. This blog is dedicated to Bobbi Campbell a real hero for not giving up when diagnosed with Aids and for being the first publicly known person with Aids. May his soul rest in peace