the Museum of Discovery in Science
is proud to bring you wise bodies presented by AIDS
Healthcare Foundation Today, we're gonna be talking
about Don't feel nervous, Don't feel nervous
HIV and AIDS. So we know that it's transmitted
through, um, and through blood. Is there any other
way that it's transmitted through the air? Can you get HIV
from kissing? So it's an STD, and it's stigmatized to be like the
worst one. Or at least that's what I like here, like whenever it's talked
about HIV AIDS is like, That's the bad one. You know what I mean because you can't fix
it. There's no cure. The human
immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a
virus that attacks white blood cells, weakening the immune system's ability
to fight off infections and diseases. If the spread of HIV in the
body is left untreated and too many white blood cells are killed,
this will lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,
or AIDS. AIDS is the late stage of an
untreated HIV infection that occurs when the immune system is
badly damaged from the virus, making the body more susceptible to
opportunistic infections. HIV is spread through the
exchange of bodily fluids such as blood, semen,
breast milk and vaginal and secretions.
While HIV is currently not curable, effective treatments
now exist that can reduce the level of the virus in the body of a person living with
HIV to the point where the viral load is undetectable,
rendering the virus un transmittable to other people. So now
we'd like to demonstrate what happens when HIV infects a cell.
So we have these big water balloons here, and they're big water balloons.
The ping pong inside of them represent
HIV, so as the virus infects a
cell, you can have a little bit in there. But before
it spreads, it might not do much to the body, so there's a chance to prevent the
spreading. If the virus continues to replicate,
it can overwhelm a cell until it kills that white blood cell
and burst the cell membrane spreading throughout the
bloodstream. And that's when real damage can be done. So
we're here to demonstrate what happens when we reach that point of the cell
membrane breaking as it becomes overwhelmed with HIV.
So as the balloon goes over, watch what
happens to the ping pong as we see how
rapidly this can spread through the bloodstream,
as you can see. Once the HIV had replicated
enough in that one sell, it eventually destroyed that white blood cell
and then left the HIV spreading throughout the blood system to wreak
havoc on the rest of it. So if untreated, it can do a lot of
damage. So the treatment that you would get if you do have HIV in your
blood stream, keep it contained so that that does not happen
and you can stay safe and live a happy life. The first
recorded cases were in the 19 eighties. It was also known as they get
cancer, and the reason. It was so rampant in the 19 eighties because no
one knew what it was. Scientists at the National Centers for
Disease Control in Atlanta they released the results of a study
which shows that the lifestyle of some male homosexuals
has triggered an epidemic. The disease has already claimed more
victims than Legionnaire's disease and toxic shock syndrome
combined. At first, it seemed to strike only one segment of the population, now a
health threat to the general population. It's called a I. D s
aides new cases of HIV in L A county are on the rise.
Chance of noise are expected to die of AIDS. Close to 40 million
people in the world live with HIV. Back then, a diagnosis was
also a death sentence. Negative attitudes about HIV are literally
killing people. There is no cure.
Since the global epidemic began, over 32 million
people have died from AIDS related illness. And while annual
mortality rates have been reduced by 60% since peaking in 2000 and
four, an average of over 600,000 people still die each
year from AIDS related illness around the world. In the United
States, over one million people are currently living with HIV or
AIDS, with nearly 40,000 new diagnoses every
year. The southern United States, including
Florida, is home to nearly half of the people living with HIV in the
country, with Miami and Fort Lauderdale being among the highest rates.
Anyone can contract HIV and AIDS regardless of age,
gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Anyone is at risk of contracting HIV, and the sooner people
realize that that there's not one particular mold that
defines the HIV positive person AIDS and
HIV is not a gay disease. It's everyone can get a disease. Anyone from
your grandparents to people that are 16, 17, 18 years
old. At AIDS Healthcare Foundation, we've seen people as young as 13 14
contract the disease. If you go to one of our health care centers
and you don't want to tell your parents, we don't reveal that information. When
people talk about ending the epidemic, what they're referring to is,
how do we get to zero? Advocacy means that there
are policies that are not in place that need to be in order to protect
community and the people around us medication For
every nation now,
drugs is still too high. What a demand
of the world's wealthiest countries put their
resources into fighting this pandemic.
If we don't act, we will pass the point of no
return stop. The crying stopped the dying
AIDS treatment. Now I
speak on behalf of the 34 million people in the
world. We are living with HIV, and in the memory of
all those who have died, you will not be
forgotten. You can live a
full life on medication with being
HIV positive. I believe the same way you believed. I eat the
same thing you eat. We live the same ways. It's just that
I have to do an extra step in my life. I'm fine.
This is just a speed bump in my road to
success. You know, I feel like it makes me stronger because I have an extra
layer of tough skin words that people say to me, I can't really affect me as
much, and I feel like it's made me stronger
from the sounds of it. There's a lot of ways to prevent HIV
or once you have it, to make sure like you're
okay, Um, but I feel like there's still a lot of stigma around it.
There's a lot of people who think that sharing a cup or
giving a hug to someone who is infected with HIV
can transmit it. It is not true. The best tool we have for
combating the stigma is the concept of U equals U
Undetectable equals un infectious or un
transmittable. Someone can be HIV positive, but as
long as they take their medication regularly, follow up with
their doctor, get their blood work done, make sure that they're staying
healthy their viral load, which is the amount of virus in their
blood, remains suppressed. It is as if the
virus isn't there anymore at all. Unfortunately, we
know it is because there is no cure for HIV, but the medicine has
worked so well that it has almost eradicated it from their
blood. HIV doesn't discriminate.
HIV doesn't care who you are. HIV
doesn't see your age, your gender, your gender
identity, your ethnicity, your religion
or your sexual orientation. Once people can
become more educated about HIV, how it's transmitted
and how to avoid it, how to protect themselves and
how to stay HIV negative Routine condom Use
the use of pre exposure prophylaxis, which is a
pill that you can take daily that your physician, family,
doctor or pediatrician has the capacity to prescribe
you to keep you safe from HIV. People
can see that this is not a disease that
fits some sort of mold. There is hope. It
all starts with you for HIV
prevention. Thank you for joining us for
wise bodies presented by AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Wise bodies is an innovative HIV
AIDS awareness and prevention program, and we
truly encourage you to know your body, know your
status and help us make a difference.