HIV is defined as Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV and AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, are not the same animals, despite what I hear and read online and in print. I am infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and I also have Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus/Disabling. In September 2001 I tested possibly positive and went to have testing performed. Whether I was positively positive along with my CD4/T-Cell counts, and my viral load were ascertained; the latter tests were only done once they detected Human Immunodeficiency Virus in my system.

 I had a viral load of around one million (1,000,000), a CD4/T-Cell of less than one hundred (100). My friends directed me to Positive Resource Center (PRC) for assistance where Carmen was assigned to help me. She got me an appointment with Positive Health Program also known as Ward 86 at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH).  My first two providers were Doctors, and full of their own importance or egomaniacs. One boasted that he had helped develop Combivir and Kaletra which he prescribed, the side effects were debilitating and when I asked about different options he refused to discuss those with me so it was on to a new Doctor. The new Doctor wasn’t much better and so I got a ne Promary Care Physician (PCP), and I got Tina Clark, a Nurse Practitioner. She and I remained together for years until she moved from Ward 86. When she left I got Clarissa Ramstead nee Clarissa Ospina-Norville. I am one happy camper with a Nurse Practitioner rather than a Doctor.

One of the greatest joys I have with Clarissa is her belief in solutions other than prescribing medications. I began seeing Clarissa Ramstead as the back up when Tina was unavailable doing Doctors Without Borders,  working in the prisons, or homeless shelters. Tina believes in humanity and acts on it.

In late November or early December my then roommate asked if I had a sunburn. I hadn't been outside long enough for that so I said I didn't think so. He said I should look in the mirror.  I did to find a large flap of skin on my face peeling like it had been sunburned. It frightened me a bit, so I called Tina Clark. She explained that there are bacterias growing on everyone's skin. Usually, the bacteria that damges skin is kept in check by other bacterias on the skin. In HIV+ people these bacterias become imbalanced with the result that the impaired skin is sloughed off similar to the peeling off like a sunburn. She prescribed an antibacterial creme that I began using twice a day.

Sometime in 2002, I think around October to November, I saw Clarissa as Tina was unavailable.  She asked me about the cream I was using and I explained the above. She asked what soap I was using? I told her Ivory as it was just soap.  She suggested antibacterial soap, specifically Lever 2000, and if that didn't work then there was Irish Spring, Dial, Zest and  others. When I asked why she explained that it woukd stop me from peeling and I wouldn't have to use the cream any longer. I bought some Lever 2000 and it worked well. I no longer have to rub medicated cream on my face twice a day, and I no longer look like a molting snake.

I stayed with Tina until around 2008 or 9. I decided to ask Clarissa to be my PCP. I did this because Tina began working only one day at Ward 86 and I had stopped wanting prescriptions as much. One time when Tina was away I saw Clarissa. My blood work had been done at my prior visit and Clarissa informed me I was borderline anemic. "Here's a list of foods you can eat or I can prescribe you a pill that won't let you shit for two weeks. " I took the list, and changed how I ate. Anemia disappeared and hasn't returned.

I asked Clarissa to be my PCP.

With aid from PRC I obtained disability from the Federal Government in the form of what is termed Social Security Disability Insurance or SSDI. Also, I receive, in lieu of Food Stamps a cash payment called Social Security Insurance or SSI. After the monies were assured the next step was to find out all I could about this virus that, until 2001, I had paid scant attention to. So I learned how it affected me first, and then learned what I could about HIV and AIDS.

First I will present a brief history of the HIV Epidemic.

In 2001 it was estimated by the CDC that there were 36.1 million cases HIV with 25.3 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. This means that in 2001 slightly over 70% of HIV resided in “The Dark Continent”. The UNAIDS Organization released guidelines for reporting HIV in 2014 and the latest factual results I can find are from 2012 stating that in that year there were over 35 million people around the globe who were infected, that number may be around 37 million now. Of these over 29 million were in Sub-Saharan Africa, around 78 %.

We have made huge steps in Western countries, but we live in a bubble, and we don't realise._Annie Lennox in a David Peschek Interview

Annie Lennox works with women and children who are suffering from HIV in Africa. She started  a campaign called Sing and a website called annielennoxsing.com. She wears a shirt many times that states she is HIV Positive, although she is not. When I found out about the Sing Campaign I looked around and noticed the bubble we in the western world indeed live in.

To me an HIV+ male in the United States I am a minority within a minority. It is estimated that there may be as many as 1.5 million cases of HIV in The US today. The Census Bureau estimates 317.3 million people resided in the US as of 1 January 2014, so that means that there are approximately .47% of Americans infected with HIV. E Coli, Salmonella, Flu, and other potentially deadly viruses and bacterial infections far outweigh this small percentage of HIV+ people in The US. Further, in the United States and Western Europe, collectively, “The Western World”,  HIV is mainly restricted to the homosexual male population, whereas,  in the rest of the world, according to UNAIDS, more than half of HIV+ peoples are women, with women in their childbearing years infected more.  Yes Annie, we in The Western World do live in a bubble.

This is Part One of my blogs on what I know, or think I know regarding HIV. My next meanderings will be more on where and when HIV came from. Please take the time to comment with corrections, additions, and especially arguments.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/basics/ataglance.html
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/statistics_2001_HIV_Surveillance_Report_vol_13_no2.pdf
http://www.unaids.org/en/dataanalysis/datatools/aidsinfo/
http://www.aces.edu/urban/metronews/vol13no2/documents/TheManyFacetsofHIV2014docx.pdf
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/104264/1/9789241506830_eng.pdf?ua=1
http://thequietus.com/articles/08226-annie-lennox-interview-international-womens-day