World AIDS Day 1 December 2010

Today, December 1st, is World AIDS day – 

what are we doing and how are we getting on? - Anna

My meeting, at which I hoped to advance a clinical trial in India, was cancelled because of our weather (snow and very cold, and people marooned all over the place). I battled across London for the first of a series of examinations & treatments – my lung capacity, as measured by my blowing into a tube, a task which my lovely personal trainer gets me to do regularly, has more than halved  since I came back from South Africa, and although I feel absolutely fine,  I was beginning to wonder whether I had picked up TB, pneumonia, had a secret heart attack – that kind of cheerful thought. My first appointment was with my nutritionist and osteopath, who told me that me skull bones were all jammed together (stress) and that she thought that the cause of the breathlessness was also stress – diaphragm not moving.  I came out apparently unjammed, and feeling much better – later in the week my doctor pronounced – No Heart Disease – and reckoned that the apparent reduction in lung capacity – which had dropped still further - was because I am not blowing properly.  I have to practice, and I should get it back up to its normal 700 (now 300…). I am relieved - ; think there is something; and am convinced that the complementary practitioner is right – it is stress. I have been working so hard at this, and doing little else, and a flow of cash would be a lovely thing.

Clive was on his way to Johannesburg, to swear allegiance to the Queen, and confirm British citizenship. That means that one day, we can get him here, to talk.  Readers, come! It will be worthwhile. Clive, more than anyone, should wear a sandwich board; 

“Exhibit One” 

 “I’m FINE”  

Then, he was invited to talk to a major bank, one of whose employees was treated. 

Like many of those we have treated, he is being watched.

Michaela, a wonderful musician, along with her many other talents, was playing her bowls for World AIDS day at the Medi Spa http://www.medispa.co.za/index.htm
Ubuntu Wellness Centre  http://www.ubuntu-wellness.co.za/Contact.aspx , praying in good energy for HIVEX. Michaela will have a new CD out shortly. It records her playing with South African musicians. It has been produced by Howard Butcher of Peace of Eden, and I think it will be really special.  I feel very privileged to have heard Michaela play in different places around the globe.

Michaela, playing her bowls for World AIDS Day

On this day, out news reports on events worldwide – reports Caressa Cameron, Miss USA, talking at a conference on mother to baby transmission. This can be prevented quite easily and cheaply, but still the UN reports that last year 370,000 babies were born with HIV. Half are expected to die before they are two. Now why can’t we try to strengthen their immune systems using safe HIVEX equipment?  Because we aren’t out there.. we don’t have machines, registrations, money..Yet. Bring it in! In South Africa, more than 30% of mothers-to-be test positive for HIV. In July, we met a young mother who had been treated by HIVEX a couple of months earlier, when she was around 8 months pregnant. Her baby was a strapping little bruiser who looked as healthy as any baby I have seen. We learnt in September that the baby had tested negative for HIV.  That young woman had had very little sexual experience, had almost vertainly contracted HIV from her partner, and was in deep shock when we met her. At that point, she had not yet summoned the courage to talk to her partner.  Shame, stigma again. Our press reports that 25% of UK HIV sufferers don’t know that they are HIV+, and our budgets are cut, so there are fewer messages to bring risk to people’s attention. And, good news this year.  HIV infection rates are dropping, though not yet in South Africa.

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