SergioOaxaca

Many dont realize that there is a common link between discrimination and AIDs. When
Cassandra Wertman was interviewed on her experience with an uncle who had AIDS, the
problem wasnt just the disease but also the discrimination towards his disease.

Two years before Cassandra was born, her uncle was diagnosed with the HIV virus, a
virus that weakens the immune system enough to make a common cold fatal. He wasnt very
open about it because at the time there was discrimination towards people with HIV. In the
eyes of the local townspeople, he was a risk to everyone. He wasnt human anymore, he had
turned himself into a monster, a threat to the wellbeing of the small town. Nobody assumed we
were related, and everything my brother and I heard were the rumors. But for my mother, the
sister of my Uncle Chris, things were different.

Due to the rumors that only gay men got the virus, people started to discriminate against
men with AIDS/HIV. Even her grandparents were distancing themselves from him because it
was said that they did not give him full support. As a young kid I remember him being the uncle
who greeted us at the airport with candy and bought us the latest and greatest toys. Yet, as the
years went on, Uncle Chris became increasingly thinner. He couldnt run around with us like he
had before, and soon enough he was bedridden in the local hospital. When she was young, she
lacked the knowledge of what AIDS/HIV was. Her uncle was simply sick. Suddenly the fun and
loving Chris, who played in the band in the town square every Friday night, was a completely
different person. In the eyes of the local townspeople, he was a risk to everyone. Coming from an
all white family and looking asian, I never felt the repercussions from this. For Cassandra,
trying to adapt to the fact that she had an uncle who had AIDS was not as bad because she only
saw him once a year during the summer. She indeed understood that he was sick so she could
not play with him and learned to give him his space thinking that somehow she could get
infected. She was far too young to understand that the most common way to get AIDS is by
sexual orientation, needles, blood transfusion, and bodily fluids. In the U.S., it's more common
for people to have AIDS/HIV between the ages of 19-24 and the main reason for this is sexual
orientation. In countries like Africa, it's more common to get the HIV virus through the use of
needles due to the lack of resources and because of the poor environment.

As Cassandra started to grow older and gain better knowledge of the world, she became
more interested in the disease and started to research the HIV virus. Once I got older, I began
to be more and more interested in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I did not know much about it until I
did an internship at The Scripps Research Institute in my junior year where I was doing electron
microscopy and imaging HIV trimers. She learned about the risk factors and the symptoms but
always wanted to learn more about how to combat the disease and if there was any medication
to cure it. She now knows a lot more about AIDS/HIV and believes that it is necessary for the
world to know about the symptoms of the disease to decrease infection rates.

When the HIV virus gets inside a persons body, it attaches to the Helper T-cells that are
supposed to make antibodies to combat a disease. Once the virus attaches to the T-cells, it
manipulates it to make more HIV virus cells while erasing the T-cells memory on how to
combat any disease. The virus multiplies in this way making it one of the deadliest incurable
diseases. With a project in school based on AIDS, Cassandra got inspired and has advocated for
the understanding of HIV virus, especially on behalf of the LGBT+ community since most of
society still believes that only gay people can get infected.

When Cassandra was small, she lacked a full complete understanding of AIDS and HIV,
so when her uncle died, she had the mentality as if it was a normal thing that older family
members die. Little did she know that at the time there were many people dying of AIDS, and
unfortunately, her uncle was a victim of the disease. As she grew older, her mentality started to
changed, The last thing people need when struggling through health issues is hate because
theyre already going through things so much worse than we could ever imagine. She strongly
believes that regardless of a persons disease, they should not be discriminated against,
especially to the point where they have to run away from their homes.

Back in the day, it was common for people with incurable diseases to be forced out of
their homes. Cassandra wants people to support their family members or friends with the
disease because her uncle did not have full support. She wants the people with any kind of
disease to get the help and support necessary and believes that this will decrease the rate of
people with AIDS. Many victims of AIDS/HIV do not have the disease fully developed, and if a
victim of the disease finds out about it in an early stage, there is a way to control it like
suppressing it with HIV medicine. Because of the rumors that only gay men get HIV, victims of
the disease won't make their family members aware of their disease and it makes it harder for
those victims to get support and get healthy. Victims of the HIV virus get symptoms like a
swollen tongue, bumps on the skin, dry throat, heavy sweating, and more. It's a very painful
disease that 99.99% of its victims have died from.

Considering that there is a whole community of people who are wanting to support
victims of HIV/AIDS, the future looks bright. People like Cassandra are giving hope and
standing up for those with HIV/AIDS. Cassandra Wertmans uncle who had the HIV virus
inspired her to study more about AIDs. Shes currently attending New York University and
studying molecular biology. Medicine has always been a huge part of her family's life. Her father
is a surgeon and her mother is a nurse. She grew up constantly surrounded by healthcare and
spent a lot of time in hospitals interacting with patients and coming to love the healthcare
profession. Cassandra has a goal in life. She wants to help infected people get support from their
relatives. Her uncle is her motivation to reach that goal.

Cites:

https://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/what-is-hiv-aids/
https://medlineplus.gov/hivaids.html