Last night I was watching *** as Folk. I thought first that it was neat that they actually went and got real swimmers to play the roles of high school swimmers. Then when the races began, they had the teenager who had become HIV while trying to survive hit his head on the wall. I think that the only reason they did any of the story was so that they could have some one call out the word ***, have people scream about contaminated blood & be very histerical.
So this morning, I called a friend who works in Denver with they county AIDS task force and asked if he could find any case of anyone getting HIV from blood in the water or if there had been any studies of HIV virus living in chlorinated water. It can't.
I was wondering how anyone would react if this happened in real life to them. What would you do if you were swimming in a pool and some one began to bleed badly? I'm sure I've swam with some one who is/was HIV+, afterall I've lived in our nation's capital.
Parents
Former Member
Yay for Kyra and her lifeguard training! Now we know we're all safe......:D
As far as people reacting to HIV and other maladies, I think human nature is to be afraid of what you don't understand, or what you don't know about.
I remember once from a sixth grade health class, in 1995, my teacher said that in order to contract the HIV virus through ingestion (not through cuts or anything) of bodily fluids, like blood, you would have to drink something like two gallons of pure fluid. In a word, EW. If you're swallowing that much pool water, you've got more problems than HIV to deal with.
Minor case in point to people reacting to what they don't understand: Greg Louganis, the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. During his 9th of 11 qualifying dives, he slammed his head into the divingboard, cutting it open. The doctor who cleaned his head wound did so without gloves, and no special precautions were taken other than to clean up the blood and disinfect the pool, per standards. Then, in 1995, Greg admitted to being HIV positive during the Games, and everybody freaked out. The number of HIV tests went up 14% in the next two months, simply because most of the people who attended the diving events felt they had been at risk, when in fact, the only person who was even remotely at risk was the doctor, for not wearing gloves.
The point is, they didn't even think about it in 1988, but in 1995, it was suddenly front page news. I think if anybody bled into a pool today, they would drain the pool and scrub it down, and gloves and anti-radiation suits would come out. Okay, maybe not the suits.
Somewhere in all the madness, thank god for the voices of reason on this board. :)
Yay for Kyra and her lifeguard training! Now we know we're all safe......:D
As far as people reacting to HIV and other maladies, I think human nature is to be afraid of what you don't understand, or what you don't know about.
I remember once from a sixth grade health class, in 1995, my teacher said that in order to contract the HIV virus through ingestion (not through cuts or anything) of bodily fluids, like blood, you would have to drink something like two gallons of pure fluid. In a word, EW. If you're swallowing that much pool water, you've got more problems than HIV to deal with.
Minor case in point to people reacting to what they don't understand: Greg Louganis, the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. During his 9th of 11 qualifying dives, he slammed his head into the divingboard, cutting it open. The doctor who cleaned his head wound did so without gloves, and no special precautions were taken other than to clean up the blood and disinfect the pool, per standards. Then, in 1995, Greg admitted to being HIV positive during the Games, and everybody freaked out. The number of HIV tests went up 14% in the next two months, simply because most of the people who attended the diving events felt they had been at risk, when in fact, the only person who was even remotely at risk was the doctor, for not wearing gloves.
The point is, they didn't even think about it in 1988, but in 1995, it was suddenly front page news. I think if anybody bled into a pool today, they would drain the pool and scrub it down, and gloves and anti-radiation suits would come out. Okay, maybe not the suits.
Somewhere in all the madness, thank god for the voices of reason on this board. :)
