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Volunteers needed for New HIV Vaccine Testing
11/18/05
Volunteers needed for New HIV Vaccine Testing
Thirty two volunteers are needed in Jamaica to become guinea – pigs for the new HIV vaccine. This was disclosed by Dr. Peter Figueroa, chief of Epidemiology and HIV/AIDS in the Health Ministry yesterday at the launch of the new vaccine trial. The trial will be conducted worldwide and is scheduled to begin early next year. Already 1500 persons from other countries have registered.
The volunteers must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and must be HIV negative. Some of them will be given three doses of the vaccine Ad 5 HIV-1 gag/pol/nef over a period of six months. Another group of persons will be given similar doses of a substance called a placebo an injection without any active vaccine made of saline solution. The two groups will be monitored and tested for up to four years there after.
Follow up:
Dr. Figueroa stressed the fact that the vaccines are not made from live HIV, killed HIV, weakened HIV or infected cells. It is made up of a weakened form of the cold virus called adenovirus 5 that has been crippled so that it cannot grow or spread to other people nor can it make them sick.
Personally I don’t follow it. My understanding of how a vaccine works is that you are injected with a small dose of the virus, not enough to get you sick. Your body then naturally builds anti bodies to fight the weakened virus. That way if you are subsequently affected by that same virus you will have your own defense mechanism in place. Now if the vaccine is not a live, dead or weakened HIV virus how will you build immunity to HIV.
Then again I’m only an ignorant person when it comes to medicine so what do I know. I don’t think I’d be so brave though as to test it whether I understood it or not. What the reports did not say is if the volunteers would be paid and if so how much. ‘Not that that would entice me either’.
Approximately 20,000 Jamaicans are infected with HIV/AIDS. Based on the promiscuity of our society, that number will increase rapidly. Something needs to be done to control the spread of the disease. It’s easy to dismiss something if you have never been affected directly of indirectly by it. However I’m sure that for those who have lost a loved one to HIV/AIDS or has someone who is suffering from the disease they might be more inclined to want to help in the fight against it.
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Reasons why I love my Jamaican Mom
1. My Mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
"Just wait till we get home."
2. My Mother taught me about RECEIVING.
"You going get a ass'n when we get home!"
3. My Mother taught me to MEET A CHALLENGE.
"What di backside yu thinkin'? Answer me when me talk to you...Don't talk back to me!"
4. My Mother taught me CONSEQUENCES.
"If yu run cross de road an' cyar lick yu dung, a goin' kill yu wid lick."
5. My Mother taught me THE VALUE OF EDUCATION.
"If yu no go a school, yu a go tun tief or walk an' pick up bottle."
6. My Mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If yu tun over yu eye lid an fly pitch pan it, it a go stay so fi evva."
7. My Mother taught me to THINK AHEAD.
"Is not one time monkey goin' wan' wife"
8. My Mother taught me ESP.
"Yu tink a don't know what yu up to nuh?"
9. My Mother taught me HUMOR.
"If yu don' eat food, breeze goin' blow yu 'way."
10. My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT.
"Come an' tek yu beatin' like man."
11. My Mother taught me about SEX.
"Yu tink say yu drop from sky?"
12. My Mother taught me about GENETICS.
"Yu jus' like yu faada."
13. My Mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Yu tink mi come from "Back A Wall?"
14. My Mother taught me about WISDOM OF AGE.
"When yu get to be as ol' as me, yu wi understan'."
15. And my all time favorite... JUSTICE.
"One day wen yu have pickney, a hope dem treat yu same way."
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