M7 Discussion – Chronic Illness

HIV/AIDS.
Name:
Institution:
Date:
HIV/AIDS
After eight glorious seasons of Two and a Half Men, the producers finally parted ways with Charlie Sheen. They had had enough of the man. His constant partying, heavy drinking and frequent episodes of doing drugs were not doing him any favors. Perhaps the proverbial straw that broke the Camel’s back were the utterances he made against the show’s producer Chuck Lorre. Four years later, Sheen would admit in an episode of Today that he had been battling HIV/AIDS. His life and that of everyone around him would change drastically.
He was diagnosed with the disease in May of 2011, about three months after his last season of Two and a Half Men. Naturally, shock and denial are the most common ways people react to being diagnosed with terminal diseases. It was no different with Sheen. He describes thinking of it as a bad dream from which he would eventually wake. He was famed for his party lifestyle and having multiple sexual partners. When he made the admission of live television, he also stated that all his sexual partners were aware of his condition. However, one such partner, Bree Olson, said she was not aware of Sheen’s situation CITATION Par15 l 1033 (Parry, 2015). This sparked debate over the truth of the Platoon star’s statements. It was also discovered that before his admission, Sheen was paying numerous individuals large sums of money to keep the story under wraps. After coming clean, a barrage of lawsuits followed. This would ultimately mean losing more money in legal fees and damages.

His life and those of the people around him would never be the same.
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management
Diagnosis is only made through testing either saliva or blood. One of the most common tests is the ELISA tests. This is an acronym for Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay and is a test that checks for the number of antibodies in the subject CITATION Fea05 l 1033 (Fearon, 2005). Antibodies are specific to a disease and are produced in response to a particular condition. Till this day, there is no known cure or treatment for the state. However, this is not to say that when diagnosed with the disease, an individual has been sentenced to death. Scientists and researchers have developed numerous drugs to control the virus. Gradual steps have been made, and things are not as they are when the disease first emerged in the 1980s CITATION Bra17 l 1033 (Brannon, Feist, & Updegraff, 2017). The combination of drug treatment is called antiretroviral therapy or ART in short (Volberding and Deeks, 2010). The different drugs serve different purposes in an individual’s body. Some of them block the proteins needed by HIV to copy itself whereas others increase the CD4 T cell count in a person’s body. When taken correctly, the patient can live a long healthy life. Management of the disease involves living a healthy lifestyle. This extends to eating balanced diets that are full of vegetables and fruits, getting proper immunizations, maintaining a positive mindset and of course, taking all the medications. People must also be made aware of the danger that HIV/AIDS is CITATION Pet97 l 1033 (Petrie & Weinman, 1997).
Charlie Sheen is just one of the millions of people living with the disease. It is by no means a death sentence. The strides made in medicine and research mean that those affected have the chance to live even longer than healthy humans. However, this means making a quick and proper diagnosis, seeking treatment and taking steps to manage the condition.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Brannon, L., Feist, J., & Updegraff, J. (2017). Health Psychology: An Introduction to Behavior and Health. New York: Cengage Learning.
Fearon, M. (2005). The laboratory diagnosis of HIV infections. Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, 26-30.
Parry, H. (2015, December 23). Charlie Sheen admits he caught HIV because he was ‘irresponsible’ but said he never once contemplated suicide after diagnosis. Retrieved from Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3372348/Charlie-Sheen-admits-caught-HIV-irresponsible-said-never-contemplated-suicide-diagnosis.html
Petrie, K., & Weinman, J. (1997). Perceptions of Health and Illness: Current Research and Applications. London: Taylor & Francis.
Volberding, P. A., & Deeks, S. G. (2010). Antiretroviral therapy and management of HIV infection. The Lancet, 376(9734), 49-62.