Death: An AIDS Posting

For the last week, I haven't been able to make it to work from the winds and rain we are having in California. So today I made it to to work from having a break from all the rain to perform some of my duties.

I had quite a shocker from my boss today at work. One of his best friends died on Saturday from an AIDS related opportunistic infection know as PCP. PCP is an infection of the lungs caused by Pneumocystis carinii, which is thought to be a protozoa but may be more closely related to a fungus. P. carinii grows rapidly in the lungs of persons with AIDS and is a frequent AIDS- related cause of death. P. carinii infection sometimes may occur elsewhere in the body (skin, eye, spleen, liver, or heart). The standard treatment and prophylaxis for PCP is Bactrim, dapsone, or pentamidine.

Like me, he was part of that one in four living with but not knowing they had HIV/AIDS. Unlike me he refused to have him self tested for HIV/AIDS. In fact, he didn't have himself tested until the last week and a half before his death. Oh , he suspected he had the HIV/AIDS virus not wanting to know for certain that he was infected with HIV/AIDS.

This makes me wonder just how many lives were lost from people afraid of being tested for the HIV/AIDS virus. This impacts me to the importance of being tested for HIV/AIDS virus. This also makes me think of my own mortality living with HIV/AIDS. So to all my readers, even if you feel you don't need to be tested for HIV/AIDS. Please go and have yourself tested. We are losing way to many people in this world to the HIV/AIDS virus.

Footnote: Some of this posting was taking from About.com.