I’m still a little overwhelmed with work demands on this side, and still hating words after UNISA & other articles. So I thought, in honour of Daed’s monthly requests… I’d keep today’s post as short as…well, as short as I can.
[Speaking of Daeds – so fellow bloggers – you are aware of the Blogger Meet happening on June 1st in Jozi?!?! Sure you are. See you there! And you can all buy a tasty double passion fruit & water for me!]
Meetings are ruling my life this week. And all that meetings mean is me having to work after hours so as to get the work done that is proposed during these dumb group talkings & cold coffee breaks, which take up the intended productive hours.
BUT during one of the meetings I was told a fascinating story about one of the big AIDS foundations we all love. I love them because they give me money and this money helps to keep me accustomed to the way I love living…. Hmmmm… living with the folks at the age of twenty six and only being able to afford champagne by charming it out of dopey men … am I digressing…
ANYWAY… So you all probably are aware of the Nelson Mandela Kids Foundation. Or how about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The US government is known to hand over their money through PEPFAR (!$^%”$!^%”$! Pepfar) & the USAID. We also have the Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria – more affectionately referred to as the Global Fund.
There are more but I’m getting bored of donor listing.
There also is the Elizabeth Glazer Paediatrics AIDS Foundation. You can read up about what they are all about on their site. It is their origins that I like.
Elizabeth Glazer was an American woman who was infected with HIV in 1981 during a blood transfusion. She did not know about her positive status until her two children became sick and then died from AIDS.
When she finally died, as this was a time before antiretrovirals (ARVs), a foundation was started in her honour. Now it donates billions of dollars to ensuring kids in African countries, like Zambia, do not contract HIV, and if they do, they can start on ARVs.
Their site says: What three mothers began around a kitchen table in 1988 is now the leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eradicating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs.
That lady deserves a whole lot of good karma wherever she is now.
7 comments:
See you at the Blog Meet. :-)
Passion fruit & water? I admire your willpower...
and I suspect after this adventure you'll never want to see passiona fruit again!
hi champers, just wanted to say hi, i so enjoy your blog. i also have a question; there is an email circulating at the mo', warning folk not to use tomato sauce in resturants as a man was caught putting his HIV infected blood in the bottle(wot a sicko!) If one consumed this would the virus not be destroyed in the acid in the gut, or could you possibly become infected? you seemed like the perfect person to ask!! tks
Louisa - see you there then!! I think you can give just one more weekend and I will never want to see passion fruit again!
Anon - thanks so much for the compliment, and for asking me about this.
Man, why am I NEVER in the rumour circuit. I try my best to be the loop but NO. I have yet to hear this rumour.
Yes. You're right. There is no chance HIV can be transmitted in such a way.
Yes, the stomach acids would destroy the HI virus, if it even had the chance to get to the stomach. It still would have to survive from the man's veins, to the sauce, in the bottle, on hot food, through your mouth and gullet into your stomach.
"Exposure to heat, air and gastric juices destroys the HI virus".
When HIV is exposed to oxygen it dies. It CAN live in clotted blood however, which is why you never expose yourself to the spilt blood of another person. It is putting yourself at unnecessary risk.
So we'll imagine that miraculously this man pours a large quantity of his blood into a bottle... unnoticed by anyone else in the restaurant, which would be tricky as he'd have to have a gash, not just a finger prick for this endeavour.
The HIV then must survive with the sauce, which is acidic enough itself, but let's imagine it does. It wouldn't survive the heat of the food it was poured onto. But let's keep imagining it does.
Then it must be in your mouth, and survive the acidity of your salivia, AND find an opening to your blood - IF you happen to have cuts or ulcers in your mouth or throat or infected gums.
It would die in your stomach.
So all in all, it is impossible. You can eat in reasonable peace in all major resturants now!
Thanks for the question!
hooray!! i can continue to eat burgers and fries WITH tomato sauce, and need only worry about the expansion of my hips and thighs, and not the transmission of deadly viruses!! tks champers :)
Re: Tomatoes aiding in spreading the "love"
While C.H. has dealt with this topic before, I do feel this needs to be reinterated:
The H.I. Virus is not the hardcore supervirus it's made out to be in the media.
It is actually fairly weak, compared to other viruses. However it does have two main strengths that, in our era of intense intercontinental interconnectiveness, allow it to prosper, get by without being bothered by pesky White Blood Cells, and the naughty anti-bodies that report its presence to the Government of Your Central Nervous System. They will get their due in due time...unless you can afford to pay for the mercenary army, the AZTs.
HIV is extremely weak outside the blood stream, and dies fairly quickly when exposed to air. The reason C.H. mentioned blood clots as dangerous is because the process that triggers clotting, ie air, is the same that protects the virus from destruction from harm.
The H.I. Virus has two strengths:
It mutates rapidly. Faster that the flu virus. When the antibodies stumble upon an H.I. Virus, they "report" it. Or report it's specific shape, features, etc. The white blood cells, with a "description" of the virus, go looking for it. They find a few, but it's a lengthy process, and the roadblock system doesn't work wonders when even a slight deviation of a couple of the viruses' appearence mean they get through the "roadblock".
Slowly, over a couple of years, more and more, mutating at the rate they do, escape attention from the body's defence force. Worse...the virus has another function besides breeding like rabbits.
It attacks the part of your body you need most to repell an invasion by Hostiles. Your Immune System.
Basically, the H.I. Virus is like the microbiological version of a smart, sneaky and subversive '60s radical. It takes out the "pigs" so effeciently, that there's very very little to protect you the next time your system is invaded.
Your immune system crashes worse that SA's Home Affairs Department does during...er..your immune system crashes worse than Home Affairs does on a good day.
Your body is constantly invaded by "hostiles", microbiological organisms who want to party hard at the expense of your system. They are loafers, normally, easily beaten by your coppers, but when the coppers have been sabotaged by HIV, there's not a lot to stop them.
The remaining coppers are caught in a battle between the subversives destroying their ability to recruit new troopers, and between the new invaders, who are taking advantage of the lack of patrols and efficient policing.
So, without access to the right medication... you start to wither, to the point where the fun guys show up (bad pun: fungis starts to grow inside your body), and you die.
Moral of the Story? The coppers are your friends, provided Jackie Selebi isn't leading them. And don't eat the tomato sauce with clotted blood on it.
That's really important.
Anon - I hope you enjoyed a weekend of bugers, chips and sauce!
Anton - exactly! Thanks for that!
A quick "MWAH!"
- Catch it when ya back Shamooooo!
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