List five things you do for fun.
- Read
- Travel
- Shop or window shop
- Swim
- Listen and record podcasts
List five things you do for fun.
What’s your favorite cartoon?
I rarely watch cartoons now and these are in no particular order but back in my day it was:
and that’s all Folks 😘
Just a few things to consider from WHO:
Current landscape
“HIV remains a major global public health issue, having claimed 40.4 million [32.9–51.3 million] lives so far with ongoing transmission in all countries globally; with some countries reporting increasing trends in new infections when previously on the decline.”
“In 2022, 630 000 [480 000–880 000] people died from HIV-related causes and 1.3 million [1.0–1.7 million] people acquired HIV.”
Prevention
Reduce the risk of HIV infection by:
Treatment
There is no cure for HIV infection. It is treated with antiretroviral drugs, which stop the virus from replicating in the body.
Current antiretroviral therapy (ART) does not cure HIV infection but allows a person’s immune system to get stronger. This helps them to fight other infections.
Currently, ART must be taken every day for the rest of a person’s life.
ART lowers the amount of the virus in a person’s body. This stops symptoms and allows people to live a full and healthy life. People living with HIV who are taking ART and who have no evidence of virus in the blood will not spread the virus to their sexual partners.
Pregnant women with HIV should have access to and take ART as soon as possible. This protects the health of the mother and will help prevent HIV from passing to the fetus before birth, or to the baby through breast milk.
Antiretroviral drugs given to people without HIV can prevent the disease.
When given before possible exposures to HIV it is called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and when given after an exposure it is called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). People can use PrEP or PEP when the risk of contracting HIV is high; people should seek advice from a clinician when thinking about using PrEP or PEP.
Last Thoughts
“It is the big disease with the little name, the sickness that no one dies of, the disease whose real name is unspoken, the sickness that speaks its presence through the pink redness of lips, the slipperiness of hair, through the whites of the eyes whiter than nature intended.” Petina Gappah
End Stigma.
What have you been working on?
I’ve been working on being a better person. That has included accepting the bad, the good and the in-between.
It’s also just meant accepting that the vision I have of some perfect future me may never actualize and the existing version is just fine.
I’m considering what relationships still serve me, wondering why I hold on to the ones that do not. Wondering if I give people chances out of compassion or out of fear that I may need that grace in the future.
Fear has showed itself a lot in my quest to be better, I never thought there was anything I couldn’t do but I think as you get older life shows you that there is much to fear.
So I guess I’ve been working on the fear that this may be as good as it gets and acknowledging no accepting that’s ok?
Our fathers have passed
Our fathers have left
Our mothers have tried
Our mothers stood tall
Now the world says we should be ashamed
O no, that I will not do
I will not feel shame about the one that raised me, raised me against all odds
O no definitely not, for I know that woman is a queen
O no I am not sorry, I am not ashamed I was raised by a single mother
Our fathers have failed
Our fathers are gone
Our mothers have tried
Our mothers have stood tall