Carpel Tunnel, HIV

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

The median nerve in the arm is the only nerve which goes through the carpal tunnel, so carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by pressure on the median nerve.

HIV

Not so long ago, if you got cancer, there wasn't much hope of surviving. Now that's all changed with new treatments being developed all the time. Many people go on to live a normal full lifespan after cancer treatment with no sign of the disease.

In the 1980s, I remember the adverts about AIDS and how scary it was. I spent some time in New Year City. The neighbour of a friend there had died from AIDS and while I was there, I saw the pain and exhaustion on the face of a friend of someone dying from AIDS. It suddenly became something very real.

As with many cancers, things are now very different, and an HIV diagnosis isn't the death sentence is once was. There are now drugs which not only treat the patient with HIV but reduce the risk of them passing it on to someone else to almost zero! (Source: The Truth About... HIV, BBC TV) Not only that, but there is a drug called PrEP which prevents the person taking it from contracting HIV in the first place. It's currently available on the NHS in Scotland, and is being tested in England and Wales.

In South Africa, to defeat HIV, their is a goal that ninety percent of people with HIV will be diagnosed, ninety percent of those with HIV will be on antivirals, and ninety percent of those on antivirals will have the disease suppressed which means there is no detectable viral load in their body. There are enough drugs, medical staff are going door-to-door to diagnose people, but sadly social stigma is standing in the way of people getting treatment.