What else can we do....

This week's Question of the Week asked, how can we get information about HIV and AIDS out to the communities if education is not working. For my add-on this week, I would like to expand on this question a little.

I believe we as a group of people need to find a way to get the information about HIV and AIDS to society, but how do we do this? For many years, we have been stating we should educate, educate, educate..but yet as we educate, the numbers of individuals with HIV/AIDS is increasing. So, why isn't the education process working?

I don't believe we necessarily have to educate more, but we have to find a way for the people to take it more seriously. As I stated in one of my responses to my peer's post..when I was in 5th grade we had a sex education class. I can remember many of the girls sitting in the back of the class, whispering, laughing and talking about other things. For some reason, they didn't feel the information they were receiving was important enough for them to listen to.

It's been many years since I've been in 5th grade been in 5th grade but I don't believe the mindset of our youth has gotten any better. From the amount of young girls having babies it does not seem that they are thinking about HIV and even other diseases. We have to figure out a way to let everyone know...there is no one that is excluded from being able to get HIV/AIDS. AIDS has no respect of person; we have to teach our young kids to get out of their heads that it cannot happen to them.


Course growth....

This course has taught me so many things. I never had the mentality that I'd never be able to get HIV or AIDS or even other diseases...but this class really brought it to an reality for me. Our last assignment from MODULE 8, really helped me to realized that I too one day could have HIV/AIDS if I did not protect myself and use all of the preventive techniques I've learned in this class. I believe this class should be required for all college students. With all of the parties and things going on with college students, they too need to know they are not excluded from the outbreak of these dieases.

HIV testing on Animal...

For my add-on this week, I wanted to continue our discussion board discussion. The Question of the Week was quite controversial this week. For those of one who might not have read the question of the week, the question stated: "We all know that testing is done on animals to see if various compounds will work or not when it comes to human beings. We do it for the make up industry, the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Studies have found that testing vaccines on chimps doesn't produce the desired results because chimps live with the virus, pass it on and die from old age or hunters' bullets. Yet we persist in using them for testing. This week's question is based on the ethical dilemma of continued testing on chimps when we know they are sacrificing their lives for nothing. Do we continue to use our closest relative (because there is an over 99% DNA compatability with humans) for HIV vaccine testing or do we use humans to prove whether or not the vaccines work? " ( Linda P)

After answering this question, I became very interested in testing on animals. This class has really given me the urge to do alot of independent research. When researching this topic I found out that animal testing is one of the main ways for scientist to discover cures for diseases (FDA, 2008). Although I think it is important that we work hard towards finding cures for diseases, viruses and other illnesses, I don't think that it is right for animals to have to suffer in order for us to find these cures.

Organizations such as PETA work hard to protect animal's rights. According to PETA Organization website, they are constantly working to keep the innocent animals safe from the most dangerous creature in the world, HUMANS.

Did you know....

According to PETA over 20,000 animals are used everyday as test specimen for various experiments, of those animals almost half of them die because of the experiment. I think it is very important for us to do our research in order to find the cure for HIV, but I think with the type of technology we have today there has to be a better way for us to test. I support testing but not testing on animals in order to find the cure, we have to strive together and work hard to find other ways for us to experiment.

HIV is a serious virus and we have to find a way to stop it.