A Few Things I've Learned about HIV...

Before you dive into this post, I have three really quick trivia questions for you.  No skipping this part.  It’s important.  Even if you’re not a trivia person (I’m totally not!), take your best shot at these.

1.)   What is the national debt?

2.)   Who won the Super Bowl?

3.)   What was last year’s most popular TV show?

Got your best guess for all three questions?  I know, some of you couldn’t care less about football popular TV shows.  That’s okay.  Guess anyway. 

Ready for the answers? 

1.)   The national debt is slightly over two trillion dollars.

2.)   The New York Giants won this year’s Super Bowl; they defeated the Denver Broncos, 39-20.

3.)   Last year’s most popular TV show was, of course, The Cosby Show.

Alright, thanks for indulging me.  Now on to the post.

What?  My answers sound a little funny to you?

You’re right.  They do sound a little funny.  That’s because they’re a little dated.  The answers I gave you are twenty-four years old.  They’re from 1987.  The era of big hair and Hammer pants.

No intelligent person would want to answer these questions the way I did.  (After all, the national debt is over fourteen trillion dollars and growing wwwaaayyy too quickly.  And we all know that everyone is watching American Idol, not reruns of The Cosby Show.)  Any of us would feel incredibly silly and uninformed if we actually believed twenty-four-year-old information. 

Or would we?

A 2009 survey done by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that levels of knowledge about HIV transmission have not increased since 1987. 

Seriously?  The public’s knowledge about HIV transmission hasn’t increased in twenty-four years?!? 

That’s a sad and embarrassing statistic.  I would be mortified if I told a football junkie that the Giants beat the Broncos in the Super Bowl (especially since neither team even made the playoffs this year).  Yet people aren’t too concerned about getting up-to-speed in their knowledge about HIV transmission.

The most discouraging thing in my mind is that many of these uninformed (or misinformed) people are not neutral in their feelings about HIV.  Many of them are willing to hold on to stigma, express strongly negative opinions, and even show prejudice toward those with HIV.

I don’t want to sound harsh here.  In fact, I have a confession.  Nine months ago, I was completely ignorant about HIV.  I was totally living in 1987.  It is only because of some very special people who have a heart for those living with HIV that my knowledge has been broadened (and my perspective totally blown away).

I hope you’re intrigued.  I hope you want to keep reading.  Stick with me, and I’ll do my best to get you out of the 80’s.   After all, you wouldn’t want to show up at the year’s biggest party in L.A. Gear high tops, would you?  (Although, those shoes were totally rockin’ in 1987. :)

Here are a few really important (and surprising) things I’ve learned about HIV…

1.) People with HIV are not dying; they’re living and living for a long time.  When my friend Janeé told me that she and her husband were planning to adopt a child with HIV, I was pretty surprised.  My thoughts went something like this, “Well, that’s really awesome that they’re willing to do that, but I could never knowingly adopt a dying child.”  (By the way, you can meet Janeé’s family – including her precious adopted daughter, Vika – here.)

Little did I know that doctors now say that the life expectancy for people living with HIV is close to normal.  According to the Journal of the American Medical Association “the life expectancy of people with HIV is nearing that of people without the disease.”  This means that people with HIV can go to college, get married, and have children of their own who are not HIV-positive.  They can even expect to meet their grandchildren.  (Side note: The mother-to-child HIV transmission rate is only one to two percent if the mother takes medication during her pregnancy.) 

 2.) Since the development of antiretroviral medications in the mid-1990’s there have been NO RECORDED CASES of HIV being transmitted in a household, educational, or childcare setting.  You read that right.  No recorded cases.  Zero.  Siblings are not sharing HIV.  Kids are not giving HIV to their parents.  HIV is not spread through normal family interaction.

Let me get a little more specific…HIV is not spread through hugging, kissing, holding hands, coughing, sneezing, touching a toilet seat, changing diapers, sharing food and drinks, sharing a bed, bathing, swimming or any other casual way. HIV is not transmitted through urine, stool, mucous, tears or sweat. No one has ever become infected due to contact with an environmental surface (i.e. blood spilled on a counter, floor, or other object).  HIV is spread through mother-to-child contact (during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding), sexual contact that mixes body fluids, and sharing needles. 

In recent months, I’ve heard people ask questions like, “If two siblings share a drink, won’t they spread HIV?” or “Will my children catch HIV if they play with children who are HIV-positive?”  The answer to both of these questions is a resounding NO!  People with HIV are not a risk to those around them.  In fact, there are now over a million people living in the United States who are HIV-positive.  You might have interacted with one today.  Is that scary?  No!

Is it possible for HIV to be spread between family members or friends by a freak accident?  Yes, it's possible.  But it's much less likely than someone in your family dying from a lot of other dangerous things that children (probably your children included) are exposed to on a regular basis.  You know, dangerous things like automobiles, swimming pools, and lightning strikes.

3.) HIV medications are amazing, and we've only had 30 years to develop them.  Think about what scientists might come up with in another 30 years!

Want to hear something pretty amazing about HIV medications?  Antiretroviral medications (also called ARV’s) are incredibly effective.  People who follow their recommended course of treatment often have what it called an undetectable viral load.  This means that the level of HIV in their blood is too low for an HIV test to detect.  HIV-positive people who are being treated with ARV’s can actually test negative for HIV.  Pretty crazy, huh?

4.) Day-to-day, raising a child with HIV is pretty much like raising any other child.  Kids with HIV love Christmas presents, throw tantrums, make messes, say things you wish they hadn’t, give great hugs, giggle, cry when mommy leaves for girl night, and manage to spill breakfast down their shirts right before church.  They go to school, where their parents can choose whether or not to disclose their HIV-positive status.  They play sports.  (Just FYI: According to the CDC, HIV has never been transmitted during a sporting event.  NBA.  PGA.  YMCA.  Never.)

Children with HIV usually take ARV’s twice a day.  It is important that they take their medications every twelve hours.  They also visit a pediatric infectious disease specialist four times a year so their blood levels can be monitored and their medications adjusted, if necessary.  Other than that, they’re pretty much normal kids. 

When HIV-positive children catch colds, bacterial infections, or viruses, they respond like other children.  They feel yucky, they take medicine, and they get better.  They aren’t usually sick any longer than children who don’t have HIV, and they don’t usually get any sicker than children who don't have HIV.

5.) HIV and AIDS are not the same thing. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.  AIDS occurs when HIV advances to the point that a person’s immune system is so weakened that it can no longer fight off illnesses and infections.  If HIV is left untreated, it can develop into AIDS.  Obviously, this means it is essential that those living with HIV have access to medication and adhere to their medication regimes. 

Orphaned children in the country we hope to adopt from are cared for by orphanages until age sixteen.  Thankfully, most of these orphanages provide medication for children living with HIV.   When these children age out of the system, they are on their own at age sixteen.  No family.  No support structure.  No health insurance.

Imagine being a sixteen-year-old orphan on the street.  How would you get the expensive medication your body requires to survive?

You wouldn’t.

I’ve been promising for several months to share more about our future children’s special need.  This post is it.  The children we hope to adopt are HIV-positive.  They are healthy and living.  They are not dangerous to our family or yours.  We don’t know them yet, but we’re guessing they’re bright, spunky, and full of potential.  Most of all, we are sure that they are special children, made in the image of God, and incredibly perfect just the way they are.  We are beyond excited to meet them, and we hope you are too.  (If you come back on Wednesday, I’ll introduce you to some amazing kids who are living with HIV.)

I hope you’ve read this far.  I hope you’ve learned a thing or two.  And I hope you’re ready to put any prejudice or stigma you have felt toward those living with HIV on the shelf – for good (right next to those Bon Jovi tapes).