HIVAfrica 2013, a little different Posted by HIV on Jun 26, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments hivafrica2013 For HIVAfrica 2013, our mission (June27 – July 14) will be a little different. We are dividing into 2 teams of 11 people (from 8 states). Team Medical and Care Outreach will go forward as we regularly do with our Team leader and doctor, Kathy O’Connell, three nurses, and support persons who will distribute blankets, mosquito nets, worm pills, medications, clothing, hoes, machetes, seeds, mattresses and a million hugs in the name of Jesus. The Vacation Bible School (VBS) Team will do something well-known in America amongst most churches, but rarely if ever done in Africa, especially for AIDS orphans. Team VBS will be serving 420 AIDS orphans with fun, crafts, T-shirts, lunch, skits, games and a million hugs in the name of Jesus. This is a huge undertaking doing it 7 times in two countries and three languages! Led by Joni Sonnenberg, Lori Buccino, and Amy Bringhurst this team will break ground in the hearts of those children so often forgotten completely about. Over the 18 days, the team hopes to share the Gospel of Jesus in very real demonstrations of God’s love to over 3000 people. Read More Cured of AIDS Posted by HIV on Mar 19, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments hiv-baby Did you read about the baby girl, born in Mississippi to a woman with HIV, who was found with HIV in her blood shortly after birth? Care providers quickly started the infant on a full set of three HIV medicines (usually, only one or two are used in exposed babies to prevent infection). The medicines were continued for 18 months, but then the mother and child went missing from care. When they returned after almost five months without medicines, no evidence of active HIV infection was found in the child. The medical team performed an exhaustive array of tests to try to confirm the prior presence of HIV and its subsequent eradication, and to rule out rare forms of resistance to HIV infection. Their medical doctor and the media have now declared this child “cured” of AIDS! It’s really a broad jump to say that this baby was cured. In fact what happened to this baby is what would happen to ALL babies of HIV infected mothers if given the AIDS medications. The chances for an HIV+ mother to give birth to an HIV+ baby are about 30% or about 1 in 3 children born. With proper medical care and medication before the birth that can be dropped to about 1%. But even with DNA tests being done at birth, the chances are very high that the antibodies found in the babies blood stream for HIV where still a residue of his or her mother’s virus. The truth is no one really knows if the baby was HIV+ to begin with. If anything, as Dr. Marc Siedner of Harvard Medical School said, “It seems more likely that her treatment prevented her, after exposure to HIV, from being infected.” So the great news is that this toddler is showing signs of being HIV negative but the truth is probably not really “cured”.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:20:57 +0000
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