Term reflection

Going into this term I really had no idea as what to expect other than probably alot longer sex education class. Although this class covered alot of similar topics as i have previously been taught, the depth and importance of theses subjects were never completely discussed untill I took this class. What we covered that I wasn't expecting was the global impact of every single STI. I thought we would go over how important and dangerous HIV was around the globe but that would be it. I also didnt know really what tuberculosis was and how it is just a big a global killer as HIV is and that it is a HUGE deal. I think the most useful thing i learned from this class was all the political aspects of STI's and how politics greatly interfears most of the time with treating and preventing the spread of major STI's such as HIV. I think what could be improved for next time is showing how the global killers such as HIV and TB can not only kill people but it greatly impacts the affected areas economic situation. I think it is important that it is taught at the University level because of the amount of guest speakers really made a positive impact on my learning experience and these resources wouldnt have been available at a high school or local community college.

Bob Skinner

Bob Skinner was a very interesting person. He was part of the group of homosexual men that had multiple partners every sing night of the week. When he explained how many he probably infected he really looked deeply sad especially since he was also among the group of people who is diagnosed with HIV when the onset of AIDS starts to affect thier body and life style. I dont think Bob's situation with HOW he contracted HIV is very comparable to the rest of the world because i think in most cultures this type of behavior not just Homosexuality but promiscuity in general is not as common abroad as it is in the United States. Living in a rural region is something that affects a person with a disease of any kind because normally doctors and hospitals are not very close and the willingness to drive what could be potentially long distances probably discourages the use of treatments for HIV and AIDS.

Where HIV came from, or not

While there are multiple theories about how HIV came into the human disease scene i believe two are the most important in my opinion. Since there has not been out breaks of HIV like there is now i believe that alot of the other theorys are not true because if the disease were already present then there would most likely been an out break much sooner in history. This being said the theories i chose to talk about are "Hunter" theory and the "Conspiracy" theory. The hunter theory to me seems the most reasonable theory to believe because of the proven fact that diseases can be transferred from species to species so it is not out of the question that infected chimpanzees could have passed HIV onto the human hunters that came in contact with thier blood. I think that the "Conspiracy" theory is just a creation of ignorance and the result of propaganda into less educated societies and groups of people. I think that this theory is very important because it damages the credibility of doctors to the groups of people that actually believe that humans created HIV to destroy the black and gay. The fact that HIV was first discovered in gay men i think really plays an important role in this theory and needs to be either disproved or discredited. I think the origin of HIV and the understanding of how it was transmitted into the human race is important to understand the disease and how we can defeat it.

Unrealized privaleges and STI's

In her article Peggy McIntosh talks about over priviledged classes in our society and how they impact those that they are opressing. While the oppressors might not be intentionally doing this on purpose, the reality is that it is still happening. Although i believe she is right on this point i will dissagree with the fact that she says that priviledged people shouldnt try and make it equal but also strip themselves of these priviledges for it to be equal. These kinds of systems of oppression greatly impact the wareness, spread, and treatment of STI's along with other contractable diseases. These systems make it extremely hard to make treatment or other benefits that priviledged classes have available to the other classes. To really progress in stopping STI's spread throughout the world the systems of oppressions need to be dismanteled and forgotten about.

My knowledge about HIV/AIDS..or lack of.

Through out my acedemic career the same knowledge about STD's has been pounded into my head over and over. The one heavily emphasized on the most was HIV/AIDS. I understood that can be passed from having sex or having contact with infect bodily fluids. This was so deep into my head i dont think i could forget if i even wanted to. Most of the places i learned this were from sex ed in school, from the entertainment industry and my parents. What i never learned about HIV/AIDS is where it came from, why its so infectious, when it became so widespread, and how it impacts not only people but how it impacts the economies of the affected areas. Im hoping to learn the global impact that HIV/AIDS has had and how widespread the effects are. I have been suprised at how it was first labeled as a Gay mans disease and how the timing of being gay became more openly expressed and the emergence of this new disease just happened to be in the same time frame.

The North-South divide

The north south divide is an interesting allocation of not only the majority of the wealth in the world but also the burden of Sexually Transmitted Infections. This not only occurs on a global scale but also occurs on a national level too. This divide is basically from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere because most of the burden of sexually transmitted infections lie in sub saharan africa and south east asia. The bad part is most of the money is in the developed countries and the majority of public health funding is in these coultries. This makes sense because naturally developed countries tend to have more money than developing countries. This divide plays a big part in the problems with over coming global diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other easily transimitted viruses and infections. I believe in order to really conquer these diseases we need to bridge the gap between these two demographics and stop thinking of just ourselfs and think of humanity as a whole.

STI's and the media

This picture is a good picture that is pretty accurate as far as describing a couple of the symptomes for syphilis. I think this picture uses more of a funny approach to the topic instead of the usual message of fear. I think this is target age group is late teens to mid twenties based on the type of picture it is. I think it is an effective way to reach the audience because its easy to understand, appealing, and informative. I think pictures like this one that are published in the media play an important part in public awareness without all the boring lecture and facts that are usually tossed at us.