Strollerderby : HIV

HIV Positive Teen Sues School for Harassment

JeanneSager — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:57:00 GMT

When news started spreading around Westlane Middle School that a fourteen-year-old student had HIV, the harassment began. There were notes slapped on her locker warning her "No AIDS at Westlane." The coach of her soccer team joked that they could use her disease to their advantage - because the other team would be scared. The girl suffered daily name calling, teasing and constant bullying.

Now the girl's been pulled out of school by her parents, who are suing the Indiana institution for doing nothing to save their daughter from her tormentors. More than two decades after Ryan White, do kids still have to hide their HIV status?

There's a marked difference in the knowledge out there about HIV from the instant fear and massive homophobia of my eighties childhood. Ours was perhaps the first generation to be raised to have safe sex not to ward off unwanted pregnancy but to protect you from disease. We grew up in the time of Ryan White . . . and of Magic Johnson and Arthur Ashe. We were taught to be cautious - perhaps taught too much. I remember the health teachers giving us a blow by blow on what HIV and then AIDS could to do the body. Then they gave us the rundown of every single way we could possibly contract the virus. They terrified us - to the point where a bunch of overactive teenage imaginations were envisioning catching HIV by brushing up against someone walking down the street.

Too much of the information thrown at us to keep us safe was off base and overblown. Now the generation raised to shake in their boots at the thought of AIDS is charged with raising their own kids. What are they telling them? Because it sounds like the kids in Westlane Middle School are scared. It sounds like they don't understand that a teenage classmate with AIDS does not mean a death sentence for them. In this day and age it doesn't even mean a death sentence for her (thankfully).

Source: Salon

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Part II: A Guy’s Take on Why You Shouldn’t Circumcise (and Why You Should)

Cole Gamble — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Okay, I’ve had my say so now it’s time to acknowledge the pros of whacking the little bugger off (the foreskin, I mean).

There Are Some Small Medical Benefits

Among the benefits are:

Decreased potential for urinary tract infection.

Increased possibility for penile cancer (although probability for penile cancer is remote for either circumcised or uncircumcised males).

Three times more susceptible to contract HIV from infected women. (Might want to give your son the condom talk, what do you say?)

Some Girls Do Like it Better

And some don’t, I might add.

Will Make Son Look More Like Daddy

Assuming daddy is foreskin-less as well. Their similarity, anatomically speaking, is something they can bond over, like when they play catch.

Circumcisions Don’t Hurt Like They Used To

For months leading up to our boy’s circumcision (yes, my wife won) I feared the sound of betrayed wailing that would come from my son as the doctor has is way with him and a machete. On the day of the procedure, I was surprised the find the operation had more to do with string than scalpel. There was a quick cut, a quick yelp and then the doctor put a nice Boy Scout knot around my boy’s penis, leaving the foreskin to dry up and eventually fall off on its own.

I have given you all I can. Hopefully you’re now armed to make an educated decision regarding your son’s penile future. The most important part to remember is it’s your choice. Not grandpas. Not your neighbor’s. Not society’s. It’s yours.

Back to part 1...the cons of circumcision

More by this author:

Child Prodigies So Amazing They'll Make You Feel Bad About Yourself

The 26 Most Disturbing Kids Movies Ever

7 Classic Kid's TV Shows Clearly Conceived on (Bad) Acid

12 Pregnancy Myths

**The Sh*t List: 10 Bizarre (or Terrific?) Potty Gadgets**

A Guy’s Take on Why You Shouldn’t Circumcise (and Why You Should)

Cole Gamble — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

To cut or not to cut: that is the question. Any parent about to have a boy faces this quandry. In ancient times circumcision was a must. Lack of proper hygiene made foreskins a liability. This is the modern era, however. The old slice n’ dice routine is more choice than mandate. Some of you made your decision the second you discovered the sex of the baby. “I’ll chop the sucker off myself if I have to.” Some of you were a bit more hesitant. The same problem saddled my wife and I two years ago. One of us was very pro-circ (wife) and the other less so. For full disclosure’s sake, I myself am not circumcised and it doesn’t bother me one iota. So I laid out my case to save the foreskin. Here’s is what I told my wife:

Penis Styling as Fashion

Save the religious exception, most parents chose to cut because they simply think it’s a more fashionable look. The line I got from my wife was, “Girls like them better.” To which I replied, “You married me, didn’t you?” At which point she added, “Oh, but yours is…special,” patting me on the head reassuringly. Um, nice save. My father in law tossed in his two cents: “The boys in the high school showers will make fun of him.” “Oh really?” I said, “Well then my son can just say, ‘Dude, you’re the one staring at my penis.’” Face it, parents circumcise because they want their boy to be like all the others. They’re shaping their child to conform from birth. Is that what you want, a conformist? Do you want to a kid who is a genital sheep, or do want one who rocks the system with a penis with personality?

Great Names

All the euphemisms for circumcised are played out. Bald headed soldier. One eyed snake. Yawn. Think of a cut penis as a wellspring of inspiration for new names. Like “The Sleeping Bag” or “Mr. Turtleneck.”

Men with Uncircumcised Penises Have More Pleasurable Sex

Okay so you’re not giving a lot of thought to your child’s future sex life. Fair enough, but many experts believe that circumcision leads to lessened penile sensitivity because the foreskin is jam packed with nerve endings. It is even said that an un-snipped penis is better for the woman as well. Leave the foreskin alone and, believe me, your son will thank you years from now. Not that you would ever, ever, ever want him to.

Possible Surgical Risk

Any and all surgery (and circumcision is surgery) comes with risk.

It Is Not Too Much Trouble to Care For

This was the big argument my wife trotted out. “You don’t want to clean it everyday, do you?” Turns out you are not even supposed to touch the thing until the boy is three, and by then it pulls back naturally and you clean it just like you would a normal penis. So there, you penis scrubbing fanatics!

Read Part 2: The Pros of Circumsicion

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The 26 Most Disturbing Kids Movies Ever

7 Classic Kid's TV Shows Clearly Conceived on (Bad) Acid

12 Pregnancy Myths

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Brad and Angelina Open Children's Clinic in Ethiopia

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:30:00 GMT

If only all fame and fortune were channeled into the common good....

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $2 million to start a center in Ethiopia for children with AIDS and tuberculosis. About 900,000 children in Ethiopia have been orphaned because of AIDS, and the country has the seventh highest rate of tuberculosis in the world. Though curable, tuberculosis continues to ravage the population in large part due to inadequate treatment.

The center will be named after Brad and Anelina’s adopted daughter, Zahara. “It is our hope that when Zahara is older, she will take responsibility for the clinic and continue its mission,” Pitt said.

This statement gave me pause. While raising one’s children to be activists and humanitarians is certainly laudable, Zahara is three years-old. This is sort of a hefty weight to place on her shoulders. If I heard a father of a three-year-old saying it was his hope that his daughter would grow up to be, say, a leading litigator at a big law firm, I would inwardly groan. On the other hand, I wish all rich parents encouraged their children to use their inheritance to be philanthropists.

What do you think? Is it okay to pigeonhole one's children into a certain line of work if that work is widely beneficial?

Photo: pursepage.com

Global Approach to AIDS Overlooks Children

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:04:00 GMT

A general consensus that has emerged from the International AIDS conference currently being held in Mexico is that the global approach to fighting AIDS does too little for children. According to health workers at the conference, much of the government money earmarked for combating AIDS in developing countries goes to consultants and overheard costs, with little of that money directly helping children.

Infected pregnant women need expanded access to antiretroviral drugs to avoid passing the HIV virus onto their babies. And even healthy children in AIDS-affected communities need much more nutritional and psychological help than they are currently getting—it’s estimated that only about 6 to 10 percent of children who need therapy are getting it, compared with 30 percent of adults.

One health worker suggested that one way aid money could more directly benefit children would be to give the money directly to communities and families. She pointed out that it has been shown that poor people make good decisions about how to obtain nutritional and medical help for their families if they are given the resources to do so.

Photo: Maciej Dakowicz/photo.net

Estrogen Cream: A “Natural Condom”

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:41:00 GMT

Is there anything that penis cream can’t do? Many times I have asked myself that question, and I'm beginning to think the answer is no. University of Melbourne researchers have examined the possibilities of using estrogen to reduce the risk of contracting HIV, with some promising, though still inconclusive, findings.

By slathering a bit of estrogen cream on Mr. Happy at least once week, you naturally thicken the layer of keratin on your penis. Since keratin is insoluble and tough as nails, it presumably creates a natural barrier against the virus—what U. Melbourne professor Roger Short called a “natural condom.” Naturally, the theory has not been tested in actual trials, since that could, uh, kill people. But researchers remain hopeful that estrogen cream will prove more popular—and maybe even more effective—than raincoats of the rubber variety.

Photo: Discover Magazine

Weekly Check Up: India Works Hard to Prevent HIV in Kids

Kelly Mills — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:22:00 GMT

Ready for your dose of heartbreak today? About 2.3 million children all over the world are living with HIV. India has the third highest caseload of people with HIV; 70,000 kids under 15 have it, and 21,000 kids are infected annually through mother-to-child transmission. That's a whole lotta numbers that say: dear god, we'd better do something about this. Like, yesterday.

India has started a campaign to deliver drugs to mothers and newborns to prevent the transmission. Because without treatment, about one in four infants get HIV from their mothers, through delivery or soon after. Of course, it's often hard to identify who needs the drugs. But I like these strong words: "'Anybody who hesitates to reach out to somebody with HIV is truly ignorant and should be labeled as such,' Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said." I second that emotion.

Breastfeeding Cuts Babies' HIV Risk

Karen Murphy — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:58:00 GMT

In a stunning new South African study, HIV-positive mothers who exclusively breastfed reduced the risk of postnatal HIV infection in their babies. The study revealed that infants of HIV-positive mothers who received formula milk in addition to breast milk were nearly twice as likely to be infected by HIV as infants who received breast milk only. In addition, the death rate of three-month old babies who were fed animal milk or solid foods was more than double that of babies who received breast milk only during that time.

The study concluded that current World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNAIDS infant-feeding guidelines need to be revised to include this information. Those current guidelines state, in part: "When replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe, avoidance of all breastfeeding by HIV-positive mothers is recommended...", and also state that: "To minimise HIV transmission risk, breastfeeding should be discontinued as soon as feasible..."

Whoa! So the findings of this study represent a complete turnaround from present practice. And maybe it'll start saving babies, and soon.

Uganda Reports 20,000 Children Tested HIV Positive in 2006

JasonAvant — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 20:20:00 GMT

Some sobering news from Uganda: the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation reports that over 20,000 Ugandan children tested positive for HIV last year. According to Uganda's Ministry of Health, the majority of those children were infected by their mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding.

The article's focus is on the AIDS epidemic in Uganda; it seems almost beyond comprehension that in 2001, there were over 110,000 Ugandan kids living with HIV. Equally hard to grasp is the fact that obtaining something as basic as reliable transportation is a challenge - the story points out that the man heading up the Glaser Foundation's work in Uganda was donating motorcycles to local health officials to assist in communication and shipment of blood samples from clinics.

The spread of AIDS through Africa is one of the great tragedies of our time. There are no easy answers, only mind-numbing numbers. Around the world, 2,000 kids a day test positive for HIV.