All Scrubbed Up

It’s a problem that still plagues most third world countries because the level of awareness is pretty low, because the people are not educated enough, and because HIV/AIDS is still rampant. The most important thing on an HIV positive pregnant woman’s mind is the fear that she will pass on the dreaded disease to her unborn child, and most women opt for an abortion rather than put their child through the same torment that they undergo every day. But the truth is, if you follow the right precautions, babies with HIV mothers are unaffected by this virus. Combination antiretroviral therapy must be provided to the mother during pregnancy and during labor, and to the child after birth. Breastfeeding must be avoided as much as possible, and if the mother insists on it or if the child is allergic to other forms of sustenance, they can try the preventive method suggested by a study conducted by the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill. According to this study, providing the infant wit...

90 people get the Swine Flu and everybody wants to wear a mask. A million people have AIDS and no one wants to wear a condom. Ironic.

OH MY GOD! That picture I used in the last post led me to this book . WTF. New Revised! Including new research and findings showing what the true causes of HIV & AIDS are and lead directly to their cure! 53 CURED Cases The First Year Cure, not treatment, is the subject of this book. In 1991 Dr. Clark discovered the source of HIV. Once the source became clear the cure became obvious. but would it work? After curing 53 cases in a row, all who used this method, Dr. Clark could wait no longer to present these findings. Since that time many more have been cured, too many to be added to this book. Most important is adding yourself to that list! Electricity can now be used to kill bacteria, viruses and parasites in minutes, not days or weeks as antibiotics require. If you have been suffering from HIV infection or AIDS related illness, learn to build the electronic device that will stop it immediately. It is safe and without side effects ad does not interfere with any treatment you are now...

Sometimes, "lost in translation" can be bloody dangerous. See this site . "What is this HIV Cure meant for?- This cure for HIV is a holistic HIV cure with A bio Magnetic Cards / Bio Magnetic Tablets and immune enhancing herbal medicines. No side effects in this. This s purely ethical and most successful treatment in the history of HIV. Very easy to use -Even a 10 year old boy can use this. This is most potent HIV cure available. What is the procedure of action of treatment? Bio Magnetic Cards Or Bio Magnetic Tablets will perform as very strong fusion inhibitor (entry inhibitor) that completely stop HIV cure from entering CD4 Cells. by creating a negative charge CD4 which will repel negatively charged HIV and prevent it from attaching the surface of CD4. So HIV can not complete its life cycle. Thus it will die in due course and will be expelled from body through excretion like that of urine etc. What will be result-? HIV will be destroyed and soon the body will start ...

Dredging more out the archives - Zuma jokes. Aren't politicians meant to be good at spinning stories? For our international readers - our State President to be got embroiled in THIS fantastic farce...

Har Har... Amusing.

This is being email around a bit at the moment. Allegedly, it's an MTV advert that got banned pretty quickly by the US Government. Whether that's true or not, I'm not sure... but the message is pretty strong. (text next to building) 2863 people died. (text next to man) 40 million people are infected with HIV worldwide. The world united against terrorism. It should also be united against AIDS. It was actually part of a series - according to the email. World Hunger. Unemployment etc. Can anyone confirm whether this was an actual campaign? Or just a product of the overactive net?

There are two myths I want to debunk. 1. HIV people are just going to die. 2. HIV people don't deserve to have children because they'll just pass on the virus. Just chatting to friends, it amazes me sometimes how ignorant we all are about HIV. That includes certain Doctor friends - and I'm not harping on about promiscuous behaviour. I'm talking about the understanding of where modern medicine has got us. Basically, to the point where people who are infected with HIV can lead normal, healthy lives. And have children if they want to. This all sparked off from an article I read in the Sunday Times on the 18th March 2007. I can't find it now - but it basically covered the heart-warming story of an HIV positive couple, living in a Cape Town township who were too poor to afford the correct medical means to have a baby when you're living with the disease - but did the best they could. They both took ARV's, got their viral loads as low as possible and had a baby. A...

I don't want to bite the hand that feeds. Don't get me wrong. Although come to think about it - All Scrubbed Up has never been super digg'd. But here's to hoping. I keep an eye on our Medically Dugg section bottom right of this blog. It's always interesting to see what mass audiences of voting as the interesting medical stories of the day. Some are great. Some... Well. Take this one for example . It popped up a few days ago and tries to lay a groundwork for supporting the fact that circumcision might INCREASE the chance on contracting HIV. We argued differently . And there's a reason. Scientists found that infected men who resumed sexual activity before their circumcision wounds healed were more likely to spread the virus than infected men who didn't have the surgery. "This is a complicated situation ... but it seems that HIV-positive men initiating sex before wound healing is potentially dangerous for transmitting HIV," said Dr. Kevin M. De Cock ...

Aha. Carte Blanche agrees - circumcision can almost HALVE your risk of contracting HIV. Yet no-one believed us when we said it ... The show is playing currently, but they should have the backup research studies on their site soon. Jury out? There are some telling articles on the net. Try this one . It used to be called the unkindest cut. But now the head of the one of the world's largest Aids charities believes we are on the brink of a revolution in attitudes to circumcision. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said research revealing the protective effect of circumcision against HIV was set to change parental expectations and medical practice across the world. Instead of viewing the operation as an assault on the male sex, it was increasingly being seen as a lifesaving procedure which every parent would want for their sons. Removing the foreskin is thought to harden the glans (head) of the penis, making it less permeable...

A comment appearing on Champagne Heathen deserves a quick post. Ties quite nicely into the aritcles we've been writing about HIV ignorance - some malicious, some not. At least, with this reader, she's bothering to ask, and not just assume. Cough. I really do start off every year having an HIV test as well as a full STI test. I don't know why, it's just a thing I do. I have to tell you it really peeved me off this year that I couldnt just walk into the lab, ask for the test, have it, go home and wait for the results. I had to get a consultation, so that the doctor could write up the bloodwork request. He of course wanted to know when this happened - that was his actual question to me. Firstly "it" didnt ever happen and secondly if "it" did why would "it" be any of his business? What "it" was we can only assume... a rape incident I dunno... The point is it shouldn't be such a hassle for something like this, especially in this ...

Having moved from government (where the predominant culture is African) to a Northern Suburb private practice (predominantly white population), it has been absolutely mind-blowing to witness the the difference in cultural beliefs surrounding HIV. Forget what LoveLife tells you. Forget what you've talked about with your friends. The truth is far scarier. Don't get me wrong - I don't think white people ACTUALLY believe that they are immune to the virus - but they have this unbelievable disregard to the rules of "engagement", so to speak. It's baffling. Why do white people think they can SEE a person who is infected? If a person "looks clean" – it's ok to bang them without using a condom? Argh. And it is not about education... I have medical friends (who know the most about the disease and its implications) – yet STILL sleep around (one night stands or new relationships) without a condom or a recent negative HIV test. It's irresponsible. And mo...

Thanks to Champs for this info. Reuters, UK 17/12/2006 The Canadian-South African co-production follows the same format as primetime U.S. dramas like "ER,'' with breakneck editing, punchy dialogue and overlapping story lines that play out over several episodes. But it also deals with South Africa's specific problems. The country has some of the world's highest levels of violent crime, a crushing AIDS epidemic as well as millions of people suffering diseases associated with poverty and need: its busy emergency rooms bear witness to these scourges. "Jozi-H'' draws inspiration from two of Johannesburg's most pressured trauma wards -- Johannesburg General and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in the sprawling Soweto township. Finally, someone's going to talk about it. Yes! I just hope it really is a CO-production - or would get some otherworldy views creeping in. Funny, but I seem to remember SA Doc getting consulted in varsity over some kind of pot...

Vindicated! Yes! I wasn't as much of a zealot as I thought I was . The DSTV Streetpole ad series that featured pouty-lips Rihanna with a subheading 'Be Unfaithful' - of couse referring to decoders at a special special low price... has been changed. It now says Visit Paris . That's clever, while not encouraging promiscuity. Win win. PS. Buhle Dlamini wrote a piece for Business Day on the same subject. Published 5 December. Self-congratulatory pat on the Scrubbed Up back for scooping the story by 15 days !

A DSTV StreetPole ad recently caught my attention. In true DSTV style, it offered out some big words, some sexy pictures and a great special on decoders. It was the words that got me thinking. Score Big. Go Wild. Be Unfaithful. DSTV R599. The Be Unfaithful portion of that ad came complete with smacker lips Rihanna looking seductive (pretty sure it was her). You can't really fault the ad (can you?) - because then you'd have to fault every magazine cover and E! Entertainment programme this side of 1989. But it does get you thinking though. In public media, where do you draw the line between sexy, suggestive tease and promoting unsafe behaviour? We live in a country that is more uneducated regarding sexual issues than we care to admit. Just where and when, I wonder, should the public start asking questions? Or am I just turning into an HIV zealot?

Recently spotted on BodyHack , a Wired Magazine blog about medical stuff. Raised the heckles a tad, no? "In some cases the best way to fight a fire is to light a fire of your own. But could the best way to fight AIDS possibly be with AIDS? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are testing the idea that a modified strain of the HIV virus, called a lentivirus, could be turned into a sort of anti-AIDS guided missile that could directly target the HIV virus already in patients. Naturally safety was the primary concern. The Scientist reports: One safety concern with using lentiviruses as gene delivery vectors is that they might form replication-competent lentiviruses, but Levine and his colleagues found no evidence of this in any of the patients. Another concern is vector mobilization, which the researchers saw in the first 60 days after injection, but not after that. This mobilization probably doesn't mean the vector isn't safe, said Richard Sutton of Baylor College o...