Steemit contains powerful! people who incessantly gather together everyday! Regardless of our mission here on steemit, the amazing thing is, we gather here daily! Now, that's power!
Perhaps, we can make the first human force to move mountains. Perhaps, we can gather here each day like a regular day and obliviously create the first human clone? Just perhaps, we can create the cure for HIV/AIDS!
I saw this post by @firepower and i got touched by his effort and his love for humanity. He sought to show love to the many inflicted by depressing HIV. Sheer love!
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In general, topics like this touches me! I have undying soft spot in my heart for people who have had to tend to loved ones with health ailments or who have have to helpless watch their loved ones suffer for health issues.
I haven't been able to do that much yet to help, thus kudos to @firepower
I took time to read his entire blog once in the past, and understood his person and what he constitutes, without having met him in person. Yes, i wasn't in steemfest!
I did also write an amazing post about him here and i ended up speaking to him briefly on steemit.chat.
@sykochica had recommended him to me as one nice person. I wanted to create the steemitisbeautiful channel on steemit.chat at the time and she said he will definitely help and he did.
To the daters out there; "It doesn't take forever, to get to know someone!".
It didn't take forever, for me to get to know the being that @firepower constitutes. It took me a session, of going through his entire blog, sometime in the past, to determine that inspite of his hustle and the cruelty existing in the world, he has stayed stubbornly positive and even more loving of humanity.
It wasn't hard to see his drive to effect some positive change to 'Mama Earth' even in small ways, when he took up a venture that could save lives related to motorcycle accidents in India, by providing motorbikers with full-time ambulances and doctors etc.
I didn't see him posting for months, then found his recent post and his effort to help kids with HIV in India and it led me to writing this short post. It is true that in India there is a huge population of people living with HIV and of deaths related to AIDS. This was also something that i noticed as common in Africa.
There are many fears in day to day live of contracting the disease in these places and people live with this fear!
Let alone, contracting it sexually, people were equally as afraid of contracting the disease; when they go to barber's shop to have a hair cut! A pretty normal daily activity!
Barbers have had to up their game!
Not everyone would go to a barber shop with his own clipper thus, a barber will have different spices of ointments and chemicals to sanitize and sterilize clippers and after the whole ritual, they will make sure they apply fire as well. They feel all these precautionary activities, will kill whatever remaining transmission of the HIV virus exists!
All the above happens in Barbers shop in Africa!
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In Philippines however, it is different!
At the barber shop, nothing happens to the clippers. The barber uses the same clipper on everyone! No rituals done!
The barbers here aren't very prolific with the clippers either, thus, when it comes to having your hair shaped or outlining your hair into that fancy Lebron James hair cut, they will turn to a razor blade.
NB: One razor blade cost cents!
I used to think that they used a separate razor blade for each person, till much later, when i found out that, that wasn't the case. Then fear started to grip me! "HIV! AIDS!"
It was just so normal here to use one blade on as many people. Then i found out that unlike in Africa or India as the case may be, they fear malaria here in the Philippines even more than HIV. HIV wasn't that popular or an epidemic here!
I asked the barber once, about the prevalence or existence of HIV here and he happily scrapping my hair with that public razor blade that HIV was rare in the Philippines and there have only been few cases of it recorded.
I got even more stationary or frozen so to speak as he scrapped; so i don't get a mistaken skin cut; blood out! The fear from that; will devastate me for days.
'Isn't there HIV in there Philippines?
Indeed, it wasn't very popular according to that barber: "There were just a few cases of the disease in Philippines and these few cases are isolated and taken care of so that the disease doesn't spread. This shocked me a bit really!
What have the Philippines done to drastically curb that number from sky-rocketing like bitcoin as has been the case in many countries.? Did it have to do with their genes. Can this barber have said facts?
So i did some research!
Won't it be amazing to know why there are few cases of HIV in the Philippines; so as to have clues on how to curb the rise of HIV in other nations and perhaps to identify if genes have much to do with your likelihood of contracting the disease?
NB: Rarely, do i see other popular disease in the Philippines; leprosy, polio, cataract etc
You rarely walk the streets and see even the like homeless people or beggars stricken with apparent disease like you will normally see, walking the streets of Africa.
When ebola came out, it was a thing of laughter in the Philippines; "oh ebola ebola", they'll go, when they see you and think you must be African.
From my tiny research it is true, HIV used to be pretty rare in the Philippines until more recently and currently; related cases and its drastic rise in the Philippines from 2010 to 2015 compared its ratio in the last 26 years prior to that; tallies with the popularity of gay population in the Philippine. I don't know if there is any coincidence there but my small research; also shows that the risk of HIV transmission is higher in male gay who have sexual intercourse with other men!
My mum is Filipina, but she hasn't been in the Philippines for a very long time and till date if i told her, of the high population of transgenders in the Philippines; she still stubbornly doubts me. Based on that, it is evident that the transgender population in the Philippines started to gain more prominence as years went by and more recently
The first cases of HIV was seen to be prominent among filipina sex workers and people who inject drugs as later cases started to become prominent especially amongst men who had sex with men.
Philippines used to be known to have dodged the HIV epidemic in the world as even in 1984 when the first case of HIV in the Philippines was announced, the population of HIV positive people stayed at 1 percent of the Philippine population compared to the drastic rise in this population from 2010 through 2015, when there were 20,000 new HIV infections!
Philippine was indeed known to be amongst countries in the world with fewest cases of HIV; this became more evident after my research; but nothing else became evident as my lingering questions stayed!
Thus, i am leaving this writing up to feedback!
Overall, this is a topic that really touches me! I wish i understand it fully, as i live with fear of contracting HIV, thus percentages and ratios matter!
Moreover, i have had people with health problems and lost a loved one to Leukemia. I remember assuring him, the day before he died, that i will pray profusely and he will live and he managed to compose a smile for me!
In his agony and despair, he could still afford to share his laughter with and for me.
We have great minds on steemit, perhaps soon, we will have laboratory library on steemit that researches and stores all possible research for the cure of HIV/AIDS.
We have great minds from all works of life on steemit and this is a topic that requires minds, brains and especially hearts!
We can accomplish a lot with the flexibility that steemit affords us and i feel we will figure this out on time!
Steemit is indeed; more than a blogging centre.
In my small research, my unanswered questions still stayed!
"Can it have to do with the genes; that Philippines didn't have many cases of HIV many years ago?"
"Is it a gene thing?"
"Are some races more prone to catching the disease more than others?"
OR
Was it that there were indeed many AIDS' related deaths; that may have been attributed to some other forms of disease.
But then, i am taken back to the 'gene factor' as in the Philippines, i also don't get to see many cases of glaucoma, cataract, polio, leprosy, epilepsy; as is easy to see in say, Africa for instance!
Did the Philippines, do anything special to curb the spread of the disease compared to in other countries and what can other countries learn from this?
Perhaps, looking into these tiny things regardless of how trivial and a bit more intently, can help!
My wish:
Let's start making use of the flexibility steemit offers and make steemit a home away from the rest of the internet.
Let's make the rest of the world out there, sought information and get on steemit!
Steemit houses the elite!
Let's create our own product!
Let's create new information; for the internet is boring!
Let's view the exist information out there, in the steemian perspective and save our refined views on the steem blockchain for future researchers to have a platform to continue their experiments!
Let's make what we save on here; spark the cure for some disease out there tomorrow!
We have the great minds, to let the world hear of steemit.
What do you know about HIV and its possible cure?
Do you believe in herbs? Do you believe you've already found the cure? "Part with your secrets and let's save them here forever, perhaps it will cure someone tomorrow!"
Have you had to helplessly watch a loved one suffer from a health condition; so much so; that you didn't want to watch anymore; so much so; that you feel a state of unconsciousness is better? This extreme scenarios exist in life!
Let's start to take advantage of our daily rendezvousing on steemit, to create a steemit product that will fix humanity.
Yes, steemit does that hahaha; it makes us gather together forever and that is powerful, we can move mountains!
If you haven't joined steemit yet, don't be left behind! Join this brand of amazing powerful humans!
Join steemit today!
I found these too! Be touched by them!
HIV INSPIRED TATTOOS:
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See the complete photo series here
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Your boy Terry
my 2 cents from just a overview , It could be the environment too , maybe the humid climate , maybe a lack of some factors. I think that there may be something interesting if you can isolate the reasons behind the quick growth over the past 5 years , you might find why the increase occurred and , maybe even a way to prevent the infection in the future.
I'm spent , Many good tidings upon you , hope Steemit is helpful , but I've grown to not trust the internet for much , even if its great , no one can back you up in reality from the other side of the world , or can they , we are all interconnected maybe.
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i have same feelings with you when it comes to the internet. it best to be on the internet without expectations. this post i am looking at things beyond this post as is shown more at the bottom part. are you on steemspeak.com, i feel it will help you alot and perhaps help allay any doubts as it did help me and all the mentors and top steemians are there, i mean people who can answer any questions on how steemit runs and even any general side questions. the mentors are there. i am also there as @surpassinggoogle
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