I accumulated this information through out the years. They came mostly from school in the health classes. My first exposure to Aids was in 5th grade. We had a teacher that was very passionate about teaching the subject. Throughout the years I have gotten more and more in depth information.
I want to learn more about what new methods are being developing to prevent Aids. New drugs or treatments and how they are being used at a global scale also interest me and I want to learn more them.
What has already surprised me is the theories of how Aids started. For some reason, I have never come across that sort of information. The video on Wednesday presented information on how the disease could have come from chimps and that it got transfer to humuns by the hunting of these chimps in central Africa. The video was very graphic on the footage of the dead chimps that hunted. A butcher or some hunter got infected with a strand of the virus that was adapted enough to get transfered to humans. I didn't know that the virus had existed in chimps for quite some time but the transfer to humans was only sometime in the 1930's.
I have not known that there were drugs to prolong life of certain AIDS patients. This would be an interesting topic to discuss in class. I thought that the body attacked white blood cells causing the patient to be unable to fight off many diseases that a normal body would have. I also found it interesting that the monkeys were able to pass the disease down to our species however when looking at it from another perspective, it seems that many of the diseases can be cross transmitted to study it in animals nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI also knew most of the stuff that you did as well. I was interested to know that the disease came from chimps in a cross species infection and that this disease that was associate so heavily with sexual activity came from accidentally getting infected chimp blood into a wound.
ReplyDeleteI am curious as well to know if the disease has the same effect on chimps. We know that it destroys the host's immune system in humans, but does it do the same thing in chimps. Also, I'm curious to find out how widespread the disease is in primates.
Good job on the blog.
I knew the same things as you also about HIV/AIDS. I think it is interesting how recent it has emerged. I always thought it has been as widespread for longer. It is also interesting how it evolved from a virus that was in chimpanzees. I had no idea viruses could cross the species barrier until that video in class.
ReplyDeleteI also had a teacher back in the day that was very passionate about the subject and made sure that we covered it in depth. that is the only reason why I already knew about the chimps and hunters.
ReplyDeleteI like you would like to continue to learn about this rapid spreading and devastating disease.