Niece of Chris

Wertman
Family Member of an HIV / AIDS Patient

Ignore the entire

aspect of it and love
their family member
for who they are. At
the end of the day it
doesnt matter how,
where, or when they
contracted it, the
past is the past and
the most important
thing is to cherish
the present and the
future.

NIECE OF CHRIS WERTMAN

gnore the entire aspect of it and love their family member for who they are.
At the end of the day it doesnt matter how, where, or when they contracted
it, the past is the past and the most important thing is to cherish the present
and the future, says a New York University pre-med student. Her uncle,
Chris Wertman, was diagnosed with HIV about two years before she was born.
Anyone can say when finding out a loved one is sick or is close to death is
very harsh. Having a family member with HIV throughout the 80s and 90s was
chaotic. In the 80s, HIV was a big epidemic in the United States and was first
discovered in New York. When HIV was first recognized, it was originally called the gay disease because the
gay population was known to be the most affected.
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. Its truly unfair to judge someone based on the condition of
their health because it could very well be yourself in their
good people. The best thing we can do is provide the
position. Since people didnt know much about the gay
best care for them and make their last days here the
disease, all they knew is that gay people had it, which
greatest possible. There are a bunch of treatments that
made them think that only that population get it but little
have been made with the new technology we have today.
did they know that anyone could get the virus.
Some revolutionary treatments are PReP. PRep means

HIV is a sexually transmitted
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, and its the
disease, which you can contract when
use of anti-HIV medication that keeps
infected bodily fluids such as vaginal
HIV negative people from becoming
fluids, blood, and semen enter the
infected.
bloodstream. HIV is a retrovirus, which
You can prevent having HIV
Its truly unfair to judge
inserts a DNA copy of their genome into
by using condoms, taking treatments,
someone based on the
the host cell in order to replicate. HIV
making sure you dont share needles,
condition
of
their
health
targets the Helper-T cell, which is a type
and making sure you get checked once a
because
it
could
very
of White Blood Cell. Once it attaches to
month. What PRep does is it stops the
well
be
yourself
in
their
the glycoprotein protein, it then begins
mutation process from happening at a
to fuse the membrane together and then
rapid rate and it also makes sure that
position.
enters the cell. It release two viral RNA
your T-cells can remember the virus and
strands and three essential replication
will be able to fight it before anything
enzymes. RNA is transcribed into DNA
else happens.
Niece of Chris Wertman
and then the DNA is integrated into the
host cells genome, which makes the
By Yamile Torres
T-cells treat the viral genes like their
own. They then make more copies. They
leave the host cell and mature and seek to attack more
T-cells. The reason why they are so difficult to treat is
because of the mutation rate, which is 10 billion each day.
If not treated immediately, it can lead to AIDS.

But I dont feel ashamed of it in any way, just
at my uncle shouldnt have either. Bad things happen to