Q. What is AIDS?

A. Acquired (conditions are not inherited, but are acquired from environmental factors, such as virus infections) Immunodeficiency (the viruses gradually cause deficient immunity, which reflects poor nutrition and low resistance to infections and cancers) Syndrome (viruses cause several kinds of diseases, each with characteristic signs and symptoms).

AIDS is caused by a retrovirus that infects lymph glands and destroys lymphocytes through gene alteration, spreading the disease between individuals mostly through semen, blood, uterine secretions, breast milk, and placenta.

Q. What is HIV?

A. Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a retrovirus, which lacks DNA, therefore, depend on the DNA of other bodily cells like lymphocytes to reproduce. HIV is a highly variable virus which mutates very readily. This means there are many different strains of HIV, even within the body of a single infected person.

There are at least two types of viruses that can cause AIDS, AIDS related conditions, and cancers in human beings. Visit this link for details of HIV Groups and subtypes and see the summary of the two types below:

1. HIV-1 is the most common cause of AIDS worldwide, except in West Africa, where HIV-2 is relatively common. Scientists can identify up to nine major genetic subtypes of HIV-1
2. HIV-2- appears to be less virulent than HIV-1

Q. What is a virus?

A. A virus is a tiny poisonous particle that can cause disease and is too small to see with an ordinary microscope. Viruses depend on the living host cells like the lymph cells to grow and survive.

Viruses can be divided into DNA and RNA viruses. DNA viruses contain genes that direct virus growth. RNA viruses lack DNA and depend on the genes inside of other cells for growth and reproduction of the virus. HIV 1 is a n RNA virus, also called a retrovirus, because it randomly  reverses, transcribes, and inserts RNA into the DNA of the host cells, which in turn function abnormally or are killed.

Q. What are the stages of progression from HIV to AIDS?

A. There are four distinct stages in the development of HIV to AIDS. Visit this link for details of the Stages of Progression from HIV to AIDS or read the summary below:

1. Prodrome- the time during which aches, fever, and headache are the most common symptoms.
2. Latency- the time when overt symptoms are absent, the infection persists in the lymph glands and spreads by way of lymphocytes migrating from these lands
3. Generalized lymph gland enlargement and or autoimmune diseases, such as kidney or bone marrow failure occur
4. AIDS- the body will experience wasting, poor resistance to all kinds of infections; various forms of cancer and lymph gland destruction occur

Q. What is the function of lymphocytes?

A. Lymphocytes are white blood cells. They feed other cells, control cell growth, and guard against infection. They are the most common type of cell in our biological defense system- the immune system. They help prevent cancers by controlling cell growth and they help to protect against infections by producing antibodies (proteins that fight infections).

Q. How does HIV affect the immune system?

A. Each day you come in contact  with many infectious diseases, but your immune system protects you from getting sick. When you do get an infection the immune system manufactures antibodies that help fight the infection. When you get well, your body usually becomes immune to that particular infection. This is called acquired immunity, which means you will not get the disease again.

As the HIV infected lymphocyte produces antibodies, HIV is also reproducing. People do not develop effective acquired immunity to HIV because it grows in the very cells that produce antibodies. The destroyed or damaged lymphocytes in a HIV positive individual impairs the immune system from responding properly, making you much more susceptible to some of the many infections and diseases that exist within the environment, for example Tuberculosis.

Without a healthy immune system you would be sick all of the time. You would also be likely to develop malignant  (cancerous) growth of cells within your body. Thus a damaged immune system  fails to battle cancers that frequently  invade people with AIDS. As HIV progresses to AIDS in a human body, people ususally contract infections that are normally prevented by healthy antibody-producing and migrating white blood cells. Such infections are called opportunistic infections because they take advantage of the damaged immune system.

In managing the HIV Prevention Project since August 2008, I have done a whole lot of planning and research in order to ensure that success was achievable. The success of the Stakeholders Meeting was largely due to my high level of motivation, but I will not dare underestimate the hours that I spent preparing the following documents which also guaranteed my success with the HIV Prevention Advocacy Project–at least from the scientific point of view: Advocacy Plan, Advocacy Monitoring & Evaluation Report, Press Release, Media Advisory, Advocacy Introductory Letter, Stakeholders Meeting Invitation Letter, Advocacy Presentation, Stakeholders Database , Advocacy Meetings via telephone and face-to-face, and Stakeholder Meeting Invitation Cards.

I shared my presentation space with Shellie Ann Anderson a wonderful young woman who I met through the social networking site Facebook, who emerged as Top Recruiter of our Facebook Cause and Group. My Advocacy Presentation focussed on the need to complement HIV Prevention programming with the Internet, specifically Web 2.0 technologies, so as to increase interactivity, inclusiveness, and reaching out to youth through avenues that they are already participating in.

A number of issues were raised by meeting participants, which included the need for the revision of the Jamaica Report Card to reflect changes in the national environment since its publication; the need for it to be sensitive to the culture of Jamaica in terms of the use of terminologies such as: rape, buggery, and cult; and the need for the inclusion of minorities, such as Rastafarians and Musicians in HIV Prevention Programming for Youth.

By the end of the meeting, participants came to consensus that there was need for the following next steps:

1. Update of the Jamaica Report Card (2006),
2. Revise the Draft Youth Declaration to reflect the concerns, recommendations, and gaps articulated by the Stakeholders Meeting participants,
3. Facilitate follow-up meeting with stakeholders, in mid January 2009, who signed the Commitment Form to support the National Working Group (NWG) on HIV Prevention for Youth, and
4. Circulate the revised Youth Declaration to participants who committed to supporting the NWG for their feedback within two weeks subsequent to hosting the Stakeholders Meeting.

Some stakeholders expressed concern about the formation of the NWG, because of their belief that it might represent a duplication of work being done by other working groups and boards, which were formed to oversee HIV/AIDS programming in Jamaica. They reiterated the need for collaboration and partnership as an alternative approach to the formation of an independent NWG.

I stole this little time from my sleep to post the the Youth Declaration on HIV Prevention (draft). This tool will be used to drum up support for HIV Prevention services for young Jamaicans, which is a First. Jamaica Family Planning Association is the host agency of advocacy for HIV Prevention for Jamaican Youth. It has taken seriously the need to meet the Millennium Development Goal of combating HIV/AIDS. Two of the three indicators of this goal are the prevalence amongst pregnant girls and young women 15-24 years and the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS–isn’t it clear then that HIV is now a youth disease.

Jamaicans are resistant to youth getting information about HIV, because of fears of that their empowerment will lead to bravery to engage in sex. I say to all Jamaicans, “hiding children from information won’t protect them from harm, it will only make them vulnerable to harm, as they won’t be knowledgeable enough to make the right choices.

Support improved HIV Prevention services for Jamaican Youth by joining our Facebook Cause and Group.

Sexuality Education for Jamaican Youth

Since getting my hands on a copy I have perused much of its contents and I must say, this is a must get for anyone who is in the business of designing a curriculum for educating young people in Jamaica about sexuality, whether it be in the church, school, workplace, or general community.

I particularly loved its outline of the six core areas of a complete sexual education program and the guidelines provided for those of us who are in the business of educational research and evaluation. This is an excellent resource for lesson planners, curriculum developers, evaluators, researchers, and the average person who wants to understand the rationales behind sexuality education for youth. I will definitely be drawing on this resource in my lobby for improved HIV Prevention services for Jamaican youth.

View and Support our HIV Prevention Cause and Group.

My core goal with this advocacy project over the next 2 months is to mobilise a strong cadre of stakeholders from different leadership tiers and interests to form a working group, with a deliberate plan to improve HIV prevention services for young people, based on their recommendations articulated in the national consultations held earlier this year.

This project is really dear to me because I conducted the primary and secondary research leading to the publication of the Report Card and because I am very aware of the dearth of accessible information about sexual and reproductive health in Jamaica. While the Internet presents significant opportunities for improving young people’s access to SRH information, they are often curtailed by limited access, inadequate research skills, experience, or interest. There is definitely a need for national mobilization and promotion in support of improved adolescent sexual reproductive health services (ASRH). Check out the…. Jamaica Report Card on HIV prevention for girls and young women

for an introduction to the problems and recommendations presented by young people and other national stakeholders.

By next week I intend to send off the introductory packages to all stakeholders and request meetings with them and key officers to discuss possibilities for collaborating and creating a working group. I expect to be in meetings about HIV prevention from mid August back to mid-September. Well that’s when my contract ends, but I am all for quality so I might just volunteer my services to the end of November in order to ensure maximum success.

What can I say? I love what I do. I get to do Positive things everyday and I get to help to change my country for the better everyday. With all this communications work done–stakeholder meetings attended, advocacy communication proposal designed, monitoring plan designed, database created, stakeholders’ contact information gathered, introductory letters written, advocacy packages created and distributed, and advocacy meetings attended–we will have a solid foundation for addressing challenges with ASRH and HIV prevention services in Jamaica.