Quite an experience

Sobering, to say the least. Watching the selected movies over the last two weeks or so has been an eye opening experience. I am glad that we all had the opportunity to watch Silverlake because it gives such an incredible view into the lives of people affected by the virus. Which I am sure I have covered in writing the paper, watching Tom waste away to nothing was almost horrifying. I have taken care of patient who are very close to death, to the point where they arrive and they have totally evacuated themselves and they are bleeding from areas that you wouldn't think, but for some reason watching Tom lying there in bed struck a much different cord with me. Perhaps its the buildup that the movie portrays. I can't help but feeling different for the last few weeks. I just can't put my finger on what is different, but I know that I am thinking about HIV quite a few times during the day and the more we become exposed, the more I can't help but work myself into a frenzy....is anyone else experiencing this? Could it be because of the setting that I work in? I couldn't imagine the supreme depression one would feel when they first find out that they have acquired the virus. Learning about the conditions itself almost brings me down because of everything it represents currently and just how we still can't seem to stop it. This leads me into my DYK for the week....

DID YOU KNOW?

Different variants of the HIV virus eventually lead to resistances in known or trusted methods of controlling the virus and its progression. These variants are sometimes due to the HIV reverse transcriptase making errors when it is trying to replcate itself, and it is known that the trascriptase itself is actually prone to these errors (Demeter, 2009). When these errors occur, mutation can become prevalent which leads to the medication becoming resisted (Demeter, 2009). Some of the mutations that HIV undergoes does not copy itself as well as other typical forms but they are said to exist in very small numbers even before the drug therapy is started and this can be a danger because all it sometimes takes for HIV to become resistant to a medicine is one mutation (Demeter, 2009). When you realize the nature of the this disease it starts to become very apparent just why we have not reached an established vaccine or a "cure".

Works Cited:

Demeter, L. M. (2009). Drug resistance testing in the clinical management of HIV infection. Retrieved October 6, 2009 from http://www.utdol.com/online/content/topic.do?topicKey=hiv_trea/10360&selectedTitle=3~150&source=search_result