Admonished And Delete

Yesterday I was admonished by a certain person on a site for people who are positive for my blogs. They didn't care for the word terminal illness and my usage of the term. Granted HIV/AIDS in this country is treatable and not the death sentence as in the past, it is still killing people in the states along with various other conditions due to HIV/AIDS.

I could not find the lifespan expectancy for people living with HIV/AIDS now while researching this posting. I also couldn't find the percentage of people who can't, don't receive treatment for HIV/AIDS. Somewhere I read but couldn't find is life expectancy here in the states went from 2 years of life up to 25 years. Again I can not confirm this as I can not confirm 1 out of 5 people only receive treatment for HIV/AIDS.

Here is a passage of an article I found:

Viewed as a terminal disease just a decade ago, HIV/AIDS is now often characterized as a chronic yet manageable disease. The goal of this study is to assess the perceptions of the course of the disease among persons living with AIDS and their informal support partners and to identify the themes that distinguish the differing perceptions of the epidemic. The findings from this research reveal that 41% of persons living with AIDS and 39% of their informal support partners perceive AIDS as chronic. By contrast, 37% of persons living with AIDS and 39% of the informal support partners perceive AIDS to be terminal rather than chronic.

Among persons living with HIV/AIDS, those with lower levels of education and higher levels of perceived race-based discrimination were significantly more likely to view AIDS as a terminal rather than chronic condition. In addition, informal support partners in poor health were significantly more likely than others to view AIDS as terminal rather than chronic. Content analyses of the qualitative data revealed five broad themes related to the specific perceptions of AIDS, including medications, personal experience, cure, time/eventuality and education. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Bottom line is the controversy rages on weather or not HIV/AIDS is viewed as a chronic illness or a terminal illness.

Now back to the person who admonished me for my blogging and the tone of my blogging. I try to educate all I can dealing with HIV/AIDS. I cross post to the blogging sites that I blog. I know the person who scolded me was not the founder of the site but might have been an original member. In all fairness I can't always blog soft and fluffy saying everything is going to be fine having had three roommates die from HIV/AIDS the first year I was diagnosed.

My passion right now is to educate about HIV/AIDS including the good and the bad. Some of the postings are very hard core like the posting yesterday of people in third world countries raping babies thinking they are going to be cured of HIV/AIDS. In all fairness to me this information needs to be put out to people who are positive and to people who are negative.

I have now deleted my account from that site for I cannot be stifled in my blogging. One friend of mine stated one time "I love your blogging. It has an in your face, this is who I am. take me or leave me tone." So I'll keep posting on Blogger and MySpace trying to educate about HIV/AIDS but you may not always like what I write but I hope you learn more about HIV/AIDS.