Science & Medicine: Diseases

Weeks ago I was lamenting how we, the people, are creating diseases, some well known like AIDS, and others yet named or identified.   This week Jim Robbins (the New York Times) lays it out clearly in his article, "The Ecology of Disease."

Malaria Life Cycle

HIV/AIDS life cycle

When I worked with colleagues on malaria, while others worked on T. cruzi, leprosy and later HIV, among others, we all looked at the same patterns.  We each elected to explore a different path, but in the end no path led any of us to a vaccine for any of the infectious diseases, not malaria, and not AIDS, not one parasite, or infectious disease, has a cure; none have a vaccine to eradicate it or even stem its tide.

Yes, we have drugs, but often these prove ineffective and occasionally, dangerous.

The eco-system is in now in peril, and that perilous journey is the path we, the people, are navigating.

Rain too much.
Rain too little.
Sudden change in plant life.
Introduction of a new nematode.
Disappearance of that mammal. 
Insufficient predators for deer.
No space for the bear, black or brown.

The list is endless.

We are not.

Science and Humanity: A most remarkable man

What a remarkable gift is Michel Sidibé, executive director of United Nations AIDS program,

Michel Sidibe, Wikapedia

who is changing the African mind-set, one step at a time, about several major issues, AIDS among the most sterling, with his personality, drive and directness.  Of course it doesn't hurt that he is an accepted member of the African family.

Amazing News: Ban lifted on Needle Exchange

What an amazing piece of news! The Democratic Congress has lifted the ban on federal funds for needle exchange programs.

As a former member of the Harm Reduction Movement, I am thrilled that another path is possible for reducing HIV and AIDS through the safe exchange of clean needles with potential federal funding.

Heretofore, initiatives have been set up on a State-by-State basis, underfunded or privately supported and caused internal and external wrangles that often created public health nightmares.

Scientific studies, conducted as early as the 90s, concluded that needle exchange programs were effective and as the name implies, "harm" reduction that would save lives.

HIV Testing: possibly standardized

The issue of routine testing for HIV has been on the table at most health departments and at the CDC for at least ten years. This article seems to imply that Massachusetts, and its DPH, will move forward with such standardization.

If confidentiality is retained, and destigmatisation is moved forward, I am all for it. However, as each State has its own confidentiality law, some of the issues that have prevented the routine administration of a test with other blood work has always been prohibitive because of those laws.

It seems from the few statistics in this article, the number of new cases has not decreased in a decade, and the serious and warranted concern of transmission remains a severe challenge for health and social services without new testing procedures.

Massachusetts changes will most likely affect other health departments, and those changes if introduced with care might well prove efficacious in decreasing the number of people infected and potentially affected--providing prevention messages are retained and enforced.

The Faces of HIV and AIDS

I just can't help myself.

It's been less than 3 years since I worked with folks infected and/or affected by HIV and AIDS, and although I have learned to distance myself and still grieve, I always read articles about the progress being made, new research avenues for a vaccine, health models and that magic word that is too often ignored: prevention.

In this piece, I know two (actually three) of those speaking and feel blessed and relieved to read that they are prospering.

Here is the face of Michelle Lopez.

It was 1993 I believe when Michelle and I met at an AIDS, Medicine and Miracles retreat outside of Phoenicia, New York and she and a handful of other friends within the community have given me the possibility for hope.

Stepping back in Time: Boston

Is like a hurricane.

Accidentally while comparing journal sizes and shapes, thinking of the Stifflexibles and writing to Italy, and Boston, I came upon my 1993-94 journal. This was a period in my life when I lived in Rhode Island, commuted to Boston every day, went through a series of terrible unpassable snow storms and advocated for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS with funds from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

One of the few lighter moments in this draining year was taking a workshop at the Women's Theological. The workshop was held in the same YMCA building as my office so staying the extra few hours was not as difficult as it would have been if I had to transport myself across town or over to Cambridge, although the storms often kept me in town overnight and at Suz' house in that hamlet.

It appears that I wrote some tid-bits, essays, poems and a short biographical sketch on 7 March 94.

The notes also provide some information about what I was reading, the words that captured my imagination and the terror I ignored while so many of those people I worked with, ate with and talked to each day were suffering acute pain, showing signs of death and great spirit.

Occasionally I would go down to the Lyric Stage Theatre balcony and meet a friend who worked at the Boston Living Center. And if my memory serves, somewhere in the maze of papers I have is a story about what we said and how we felt about life and living over a cigarette.