I feel bad saying this, but I am so excited this class is almost over. I am grateful for everything I have learned in this class and I am excited to use this information to further my career too. I went to Mexico last weekend and found out that you do not need a doctors prescription for pharmaceutical drugs and they are a lot cheaper to. I do not know if this is fully true or not, but the person that told me did get certain prescriptions filled. So the first thing I thought about was if HIV medications were cheaper here. It would be like a double plus cheaper medication and a trip to Mexico =D.
Also this week we were asked specifically how we would tell people, and to whom, that we were HIV positive. The first person I would tell as soon as possible whether by phone or in person would be my partner. After I got over the denial of the whole situation I would tell my family and my friends. I would tell my friends all together in a group, but only my close friends that I hope would not judge me. I would tell my close family members face to face on an individual basis, and then tell them to tell the rest of my family, because I would not be able to.
Did you know
In this weeks did you know I would like to talk about the Thai vaccine trial for HIV that is fairly new. The vaccine contains ALVAC and AIDSVAX, and were administered to groups of individuals that were at high risk, like drug users, homosexuals, and high sexual activities, and low risk. This vaccine was shown to have 31.2% efficacy. This vaccine is mainly effective for low risk patients and lasts for about a year. Although Dr. Micheal Nelson made a point in the Thai HIV Vaccine article to not take the results to heart and th
at it is still a trial and there is a lot of unanswered questions. I think this vaccine brings promise and I am very glad that there are scientists still working towards the cure for HIV/AIDS.
at it is still a trial and there is a lot of unanswered questions. I think this vaccine brings promise and I am very glad that there are scientists still working towards the cure for HIV/AIDS. Web MD. (February 26,2010). Thai HIV Vaccine. (March 31, 2010). http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/717677
Glad to hear you've almost made it through the course, and hopefully you've learned a few things.
ReplyDeleteI've been to Mexico a few times and it's great to go to the pharmacy and just get what you need. It's certainly more relaxed. There are prices set for different regions in the world for medications. I'm not sure where Mexico falls.
Even in Canada medications are cheaper, but still not cheap, due to our price regulartory system which compares a drug price to a basket of about seven different similar countries and systems to see if the pricing is in line with the average or it's not approved.
It's funny when we speak about if you were to find out you were positive, and then the idea of hoping to not be judged. We don't judge people for cancer, cardio vascular disease, and other diseases. So why would we get it into our heads we'd be judged for this?
This is why this class has been an important one, so hopefully those who have taken it see HIV as a virus, and baggage we keep putting around it, and those with it, are just people.
I've not checked on the prices of HIV drugs in Canada in a long time. I do know that when AZT was being manufactured in the US, the Canadians sold it for much less than the going rate in the US. It made the pharmaceutical companies here crazy to think that they might lose money across the border and they threatened the Canadian government. I also remember them putting out all kinds of stories that Canadian made drugs were not as good. They were desperate to keep the money on this side of the border.
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