World AIDS Day 2015

I celebrated this World AIDS Day (today!) by volunteering at Nebraska AIDS Project as the HIV test administrator. This evening we tested 11 individuals in just under 2 hours (which is actually quite a lot considering the test takes 20+ mins to run!). I feel like I've been doing this work a long time now--just over 10 years--and still so many have no idea how to protect themselves and 12.8% of 1.2 million people living with HIV in the U.S. don't know their status. HIV is not a death sentence anymore, but there are still so many disparities and stigmas associated with this disease. There are ~50,000 newly diagnosed cases each year in the United States.

Don't want to be one of them?

Know your status and know your facts. HIV can be transmitted via:

1. unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with an infected person,
2. sharing needles for injection drugs, piercings or tattoos with an infected person (aka blood-to-blood contact--not so much of an issue in the U.S. anymore, but in the early days blood transfusions were an issue. Now all blood is screened by the Red Cross before it's put into the general blood supply),
3. from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding

The bodily fluids to avoid are: blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk. Recently the CDC has also added rectal fluids to the list too!

Education is really the best way to reduce the number of new cases. Know your status. Know your partner's status. Encourage your friends to get tested as well. Use protection during sexual acts. Don't share injection drug works. Learn about HIV transmission, safe and consensual sexual practices, and maybe even what other STDs are prominent in your area and how to protect yourself. You all know that I am a huge proponent for comprehensive sexuality education in schools. You should be too. These classes talk about much more than sex--partner negotiation, consent, healthy vs. unhealthy relationships, etc. Our young people aged 13-24 compromise only 16% of the U.S. population, but account for 26% of all new HIV infections in 2010 (the most recent data available).

But most importantly we need to have some serious conversations about stigma and discrimination. There are many people that I know and love living (happy and normal!) lives with HIV, but not everyone who is HIV+ has had such a positive response by their community. There are some key populations that are especially stigmatized and discriminated against--men who have sex with men, transgender women, black women, sex workers, IV drug users, trafficking victims, migrants, Hispanic women and others). We cannot and should not continue treating those who are positive as second class citizens. Love and respect your neighbors, folks. Reconcile old grievances and move forward together.

Want to get tested? Find a location near you!

Want to learn more about HIV? Visit the CDC website.

giving thanks.

I took this past week off from blogging (and from studying.... :/ whoops!) for Thanksgiving. It has been a really great (and necessary) break! And now, I'm sitting in Starbucks re-listening to a lecture and catching up on my studies. I'm not sure I'm ready to head back to school for the final 3 weeks of this core/semester. At the same time, I cannot believe that we only have 3 weeks left of the first semester of our 1st year! I don't think I could have ever imagined the year going this quickly when we started school 14 weeks ago.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had some excitement interspersed with my studies. I've decided to give y'all a quick review of the highlights.

Stanley Hauerwas. He's an American theologian who is at Duke University. He came to UNL to talk about the "Church as a Politic". The lecture sort of ended up as a medical ethics lecture, which I totally LOVED! I miss that portion of my medical education...I need some humanities mixed in with my hard science. It was also great to see my friends/roommate from Lincoln!

NAP. I had a brief meeting with the Omaha office of Nebraska AIDS Project about volunteering as an HIV tester and counselor. I've been involved with HIV/AIDS prevention education for 7 years now and it's definitely become a huge part of my life. I just can't imagine giving it up in the future, so I'm happy to be partnering with them! Speaking of HIV/AIDS awareness...this upcoming Saturday (December 1st) is World AIDS Day. I will be spending the morning at Douglas County Corrections presenting about STD/STIs and testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea (Douglas County has the highest rates of infection of any county in the United States) and will definitely be wearing my red ribbon. You should too! You can do a quick google search to see if there are any World AIDS Day events in your area to attend to increase your own knowledge AND general awareness of the epidemic.

Sunny D's 2.0. Closely related to my meeting with NAP, I am actually working on a project with a local group of AmeriCorps volunteers to create a group which would give HIV/AIDS prevention education presentations at a local high school. When I was in high school, I was in a group called Sunny D's and they're trying to model the program after that. We will be in conversation in the coming months as they work to shape their program to fit their particular needs, but they are excited to use my experiences and knowledge of groups of the like (I was also in PHIVE-O, Peer HIV Education Organization, at Hastings College, so I have several years of experience with teaching this demographic and the administrative difficulties that sometimes arise) in the meantime. Perhaps I will even get to co-teach with some of their volunteers!

Do JuSTIce. I was lucky enough to volunteer at the jail again to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea. I led the short presentation this last time which was actually a bit nerve-racking. I made it through it without any major slipups. I'm excited to go back this weekend also!

EMET. We had a short information meeting about the "Enhanced Medical Education Tracks" at UNMC the other day. There are 6 tracks: Aging and Integrated Medicine, Auto-Immune Diseases, Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, Comprehensive HIV Medicine, Medical Humanities and Arts, Preventative Medicine, and Underserved Health Care. They are "an opportunity to perform in-depth study of an interdisciplinary field of medicine that enhances the required curriculum without extending the time needed to graduate from medical school." I haven't decided whether or not I will actually apply, let alone be accepted, to a track, but I really like the idea of them. Of course I am interested in several of the tracks, so we shall see what will happen. The applications don't open until the end of the week so I still have some time to think about it.

Student Delegates. Well, I joined another extracurricular group (...no one is surprise, I'm sure). I had some help getting there though. My good friend Paul convinced me to join the "Student Delegates" after he read my blog post about healthcare reform. Essentially this group goes to our local political representatives to discuss/lobby our positions concerning issues about medicine and even issues that students deal with, such as Pell grants. I do have a passion for this sort of thing and the first meeting was fun, so it wasn't hard to convince me to join. I'm excited to continue learning more about the topics that will be covered in the upcoming legislative session!

Dance. I'm sure some of you are starting to think I'm a broken record, but I still really love going to dance class. It's such great stress relief and even better exercise! This is really the first time in about 10 years that I haven't been dancing for some sort of team performance or competition, so it's definitely something that I've had to get used to. I look forward to that hour and half of not studying/not thinking/not stressing/not sitting every week!

LCE. I spent another afternoon in the clinic this past week. I always enjoy my time with patients, so it was a good way to end a short week of classes. This upcoming week I will have my final visit of the semester. Don't worry, I will be back for 5 more visits next semester too!

Thanksgiving. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I was absolutely looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Seriously, what could be better than green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and pie!?? Nothing! As an added bonus, I got to spend time with my wonderful family and take some time off from studying to relax. Lucky for me, we celebrated Thanksgiving over an entire week this year, so I got to spread out my food-induced comas. I'm also looking forward to the leftovers I have since home-cooked food is just so much better than some of the meals I make for myself on a regular basis.

Christmas Tree. Our Christmas tree is up! The weather has started getting colder practically overnight, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and December is just around the corner! I can't believe it's already the holiday season. This year I will be spending some time in Memphis and then time traveling around Nebraska catching up with friends and family. Just 3 weeks of classes and 2 tests are separating me from break...