Youth & HIV in Memphis

Infectious Diseases Specialist, Dr Chinelo Animalu, MD, host of Medical Class 901 had a conversation with Let's Talk 901 host Betty Lamarr, regarding HIV in the Mid-South region, particularly in Memphis. HIV and other STD's present a significant public health concern for our younger population. This area has experienced various infectious diseases, influenced by factors such as climate, population density, and healthcare access.

The Mid-South has a notable prevalence of HIV, with specialized clinics like Midsouth Infectious Disease Associates focusing on treatment and prevention.

@Medical Class 901

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The HIV epidemic in Shelby County. Memphis actually ranks number two in terms of new HIV infections. Cases well above the national average. The case rate among 15 to 19 year olds is four times higher than the national average. And health officials say it's not just the numbers that are concerning, but the lack of prevention and education.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

We've, you know, talked so much about HIV because this is something that is becoming so rampant in our country. Our show is going to focus mainly on prevention and we're going to talk about PrEP and PEP. I'm in the HIV world. Absolutely. Thank you, Betty, for having me. My name is Dr. Shinelo Animal, and I am an infectious disease specialist out of Methodist University Hospital and a professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases IUT College of Medicine.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Okay, now I always ask the doctors when they join me, you know, what, why is your passion or why was your passion to go into your field of study, infectious diseases? I'm always curious about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Yeah. So as you know, infectious disease is a specialty that basically deals with managing or treating various types of infections. It could be bacterial, it could be viruses, it could be fungal. I grew up in Africa and I did experience a lot of infections, and most of them were childhood infections. And as a child, I was really curious. Like I could not understand why there was so much illnesses, especially infections. And so that was where my curiosity came from. And I knew I wanted to become a doctor. And after all that vigorous training, I still wanted to become an infectious disease specialist. So it's something that I'm very passionate about, you know, giving my upbringing. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

So I know that you're um when I hear about you, uh, the HIV always comes up. Like if you want someone to talk about HIV, then this is your doctor. So why HIV? Why is that such a passion uh for you? Does it go back to your roots as well, to Africa?

SPEAKER_03 2:22

So not necessarily. So, you know, I, you know, during my course of training in the medical field, HIV was something that was thought to be a taboo. And it kind of, I was very curious because usually um in those days when you know you hear HIV, people run in the opposite direction. Yes. And one thing I would like to let our audience know today is that it's no longer that. HIV is an infection that you know you could get through various methods that I'm gonna talk about in a second. And um it's something, even though there's no cure, but it's something that could be managed. So we see HIV now, which stands for human immunodeficiency virus, um, as an infection that you can control with the right medications. The same way people take medications for diabetes, for hypertension, for high cholesterol, for asthma, you get to take medications for HIV and you can live your normal life like everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Okay, so uh we're gonna really get into that in more detail, but just for right now, I would like to know what is the prevalence in in our community uh HIV? Is it still bad? Because you know, you don't hear about it any like you, you know, people just don't talk about it like they did before medicines, you know, came on the scene.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

So we have um we have a major, major issue at the moment. So Memphis, our dear city, ranks number two in the entire country for the most um newly diagnosed cases of HIV. And what is shocking is that it's affecting our younger populations at teenagers from their ages from the range of 14 years old to 19 up until 21 years old. So it is scary and it is devastating.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Okay, 14 years old. So where is this coming from? Because the only way, you know, in my generation, you know, we always connected it with, you know, uh intimacy. Absolutely. So how are 14-year-olds in that age group contracting HIV?

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Exactly. So we all wonder about that, but what we what this is telling us, obviously, because the numbers don't lie, is that um our younger ones are having what we call unprotected sexual intercourse. I mean, there are many ways you can, you know, pick up HIV. Number one would be through um intimacy, you know, sexual, unprotected sexual intercourse. You can have other um sources like blood transfusion, but these days um blood products undergo very rigorous testing before they are transfused. And then you have what we call like vertical transmission where a mother who has HIV that was uncontrolled and gives birth to a baby and can transmit that infection uh to the baby. Then for the healthcare workers, you can have like what we call the needle stick injuries, where you know you get a needle stick from, you know, maybe an infected person. And then another population would be your intravenous drug users. So if you're sharing needles, you know, or people that perhaps, you know, have to take, let's say, insulin or whatever, and you're sharing needles with people. So those will be the major, major ways of transmitting HIV. But in our teenage population here, um, it's pointing more towards unprotected sexual intercaures.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Well, let me ask you this because I've had this conversation before and it's uh talking about HIV. Um, children, we're going back to just the thought of that. How do you know, or how does a child know if they have HIV? Do they just end up getting sick, coming to the hospital? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_03 6:09

So that is why HIV for most part is asymptomatic. So what it means is that you might not know. It's you know, like, so what happens is that the initial infection, you might have what seems like to be like flu-like um illness, and then it goes away, and then you're fine, right? And so most people will be like, oh, I probably had the flu, and that's it. So it doesn't have any specific symptoms, and that's why we are pushing for people to be tested. So for our younger generations, for older ones like us, if you are sexually active, you need to know your status. Yes. You know, especially, you know, if you are not setting up the person that you are involved with, everybody needs to get tested. That's the only way you can know. The times where now where you become symptomatic, meaning you start, you know, having symptoms or falling sick, would be the end stage of it, which is called the AIDS.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Oh, yeah. That's when it's really Yeah.

unknown 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Okay. Well, I had a uh family member, he was 31 years old, and he passed away with AIDS. And I I always say that's if you had an enemy, that is one of those things I wouldn't even wish on my enemy, because that was back when there wasn't medication for it. And you just had to see them. And I always tell people, if you see somebody really that pass away due to AIDS, you'll never you would do everything in this world you can not to, if any way possible, not to be infected, because it was really a a really difficult uh ending for him. So um this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna go to a break, and I took me back to my nephew. But uh, we're gonna take a break, and uh when we come back, we're gonna go into more uh infectious diseases that you know the community need to know about. Uh that you know, we don't know everything. Normally we wait until things hit the news, okay? All right. We're talking about infectious diseases in the Mid-South communities. Okay, now I learned a lot in that first segment, and I know there's a lot more to learn. So we covered HIV. We probably we're gonna probably go, you know, back and forth with that, but let's talk about some, since you're an uh an expert in this, let's talk about some other diseases that we may not hear about a lot, but they're out here.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

So another disease to consider would be syphilis. Um is it back or has it never gone away? So we thought we were on the part to complete eradication, but it's done a rapid turnaround, so we are back to syphilis areas. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

So um syphilis, just like HIV, would be, you know, considered a sexually transmitted infection, and it was rampant, you know, in those days, and there was a lot of effort by the government, you know, the CDC, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, people came to you know do everything possible to have this infection eradicated, but it's made it made a major comeback. So just the same way we have seen an increase in HIV, especially in our community here in Memphis, we've also seen a major, major rise in syphilis amongst our members here. And so it kind of boils down to the same thing. What do we do? So right now, we are not only worried about HIV, we are worried about syphilis, we are worried about herpes. You know, that's so much, you know, to talk about, but um, part of what we do is to also educate our communities to kind of watch out for these things.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

So I know this is probably a question that I just want to ask, because you're an expert here. Why is it always somehow have to connect it with sexual activity? Is it because of body fluids, or is it just something that it's just a scene in this one way, the consequences of it?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

So seriously, why?

SPEAKER_03 10:10

Okay, so those will be considered, you know, so the infections I just mentioned will fall under the class of STIs that's sexually transmitted. But I promise you, we have a whole lot of infections that has nothing to do with that.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

But in our community, we're we're talking about these because you know, we need to bring awareness.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

And we are seeing this amongst our younger generation. And as a parent, I have, you know, I have kids in college, I have kids in high school, and that's the age range that is worse right now. And also when you talk about race, it's worse in the African-American community. So it's something that's very passionate, you know, to me. And I feel like part of what we're seeing is lack of um education. I took the liberty of talking to a few high school kids, and you know, I just kind of wanted to see what they knew about, you know, HIVSA, you know, what do you do? And they were like, you take antibiotics, and I almost passed out. No, man, you cannot take antibiotics. It's a virus, not a bacterial. So it became very clear to me that um our communities are not well informed, well educated, and I feel it's part of what we do to kind of stir them in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

So, what do you think would be a good approach to to bring awareness to young people, especially being that they are being affected by it, right? In high numbers. So, what do you think? What do you think we can do as a community or the media to help young people? Do they not have health in schools or where they can learn or have someone like you to come in and, you know, do some kind of outreach to them? Because this is important.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

This is a life of death here.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Yeah, so it's a life of death situation here, and part of what we're doing right now is the major um, you know, hospitals or health care providers in this city. I work for Methodist and for UT, and we are all coming together to work with the health department, Shelby County Health Department, and see what we can do. We are more than happy to go into schools and educate our young kids. Um, because I, like I said, part of what we're seeing is lack of education or misinformation. So to be able to create this awareness, because this is something that nobody thinks about, you know, till you find yourself in the hospital, and then, you know, the doctors are like, oh, okay, your HIV positive. You're like, wait, how? How did this happen? Right. You know, so part of it would be to also, you know, uh create that awareness. We need to keep that going. We need to let our people know that this thing exists and it is hitting our community the most. I mean, we are second in the entire country. Like that, that's not funny at all.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

But why? I mean, um, you know, race is always, you know, when you talk about diabetes, you know, in this show, it's like race, you know, it's like we're always at a higher percentage, if you will, or prevalence of so what is it about the the black community, if you will, or our community at large? Is it back to the lack of education or getting misinformation? I mean, why?

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Part of what I see, so as you know, I take care of HIV patients. I'm a HIV specialist, and I'm very um, I love what I do. And so I do take care of uh HIV positive um um patients in the hospital setting. And a lot of times what I've noticed, and you know, when I sit down and talk with these patients, is the stigma that is associated with this infection, especially in the in the black communities. Um people see it as such a horrible thing or such a bad thing, because I've had patients who did not want their family members to know, and then you know, we have to, you know, make sure that they are safe, like their families do not know. But so one thing I would like to let people know is that there's no shame in it. Okay, there's so much bad stigma, you know, um associated with this, and people would rather die than let the public know, or perhaps let their families know. So I want to use this media and let them know that it's okay. You know, there's treatment out there. Yes. It wasn't like in the 80s, perhaps when you know you talked about a family member that that passed away, it was considered something of shame, like giving shame to the family.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Yes, he's hiding it from us, and with by the time he realized that, you know, there was no judgment coming from us. He was almost in AIDS. He was really bad. And then he realized, oh wow, this is my family, and they love me regardless. So, but anyway, um, we're gonna take another quick break so we can learn more about what's going on at GHS TV, and we'll be right back. Absolutely. And this is so good. Watch this space for more medical talk. For having a candid conversation about infectious diseases. So, okay, now you have my full attention, okay? And I'm learning something, and I hope everyone else out there is learning something because this is important. You know, this is about health and wellness. This is about life and death, right? And, you know, you need to know about these diseases because if you don't know, you can't protect yourself, right? And um I just couldn't imagine waking up one day and knowing that I could have done something to keep me from being in the bed, you know, like my nephew was, just pretty much bedridden. And you know what I would never forget? Like I said earlier, um, if you ever see somebody in their condition, it make you really like pay attention. Yeah. Because you actually witnessed what you never want to be you in your whole life. Absolutely. You know, and so going back to HIV really quickly, because like you say, it is so prevalent here, do they still get AIDS, they still get sick like my nephew did back in the 80s?

SPEAKER_03 16:17

So absolutely. So HIV has a course, a clinical course it follows. So AIDS, which is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is the end part of the HIV infection. Oh. So it basically comes in like three stages: the acute infection, which is, you know, just a few weeks after you know you acquire the infection, okay. Then you have a chronic course, which will run for years, you know. And then AIDS is the very last part. Mind you, that how this infection works is by attacking your body immune system. Okay. So what happens is that when it eats up your body immune system, those cells in our body that helps us fight infection, those tiny infections that me and you can ward off becomes a problem. Okay. And so that's usually what will kill in HIV. So, yes, we see AIDS on a regular basis. Once, but once you're taking your medications, you're on the right medications, um, you will not progress to AIDS. It just becomes like a chronic infection. So, what we see in the hospital will be somebody that perhaps did not even know they had HIV or was not taking their medications for whatever reason, and then they come in with one of these, we call it opportunistic infections. So they take opportunity of the fact that your body is not healthy, your body is no longer able to fight, and that's what kills in HIV. So that end part they eight will it to death.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Oh, well, that makes sense then. If you know, when you were speaking of that, uh it reminded me of COVID. Because I always say it seemed like COVID attacked people that already are too weak to body, for whatever reason, the immune system is too weak to fight it, and it sort of kind of takes you down. And uh so speaking of that, um I'm so happy. I have an expert with me today. So speaking of that, what is COVID um looking like coming this year? Because I hear it's on the rise, not as it was, of course, thank God. But uh, and you are what what's it say? I think you said a little while ago, people perish or whatever for lack of knowledge. Okay, so give us a little bit of knowledge uh about uh what we can expect from COVID this time around.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

So it's on the rise, like you rightly said, and we are going into the cold, you know, days and the cold months. So usually you're gonna see all those viruses, you know, begin to come up again, not just COVID, um, you know, influenza, flu, you know, AMB, RSV, respiratory sensitive viruses. So these are the viruses we're all gonna see um, you know, this period, you know, especially in the winter area. So COVID, as you can imagine, was not, it's not as bad as it was, you know, nine, you know, 2019, 2020. It was uh beyond devastating. So now, you know, all we're saying is, you know, to ask people to be, you know, get your COVID vaccine, be opt-in, you know, um, get your booster vaccines and you know, um try and use protective measures if you are in, you know, let's say in a crowded area because it's coming back.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

You know, it's that's one uh disease I'm sort of tired of. I guess because unlike, say, HIV or whatever, if you're not sexually active or whatever, there's you know, but I mean you have to breathe, right? Of course. And you have to live. So you sort of get tired of that one because it you can't point your finger at somebody and say, Well, you're this or you're that, the reason you have this, right? And I want to ask you this too. Um, I look at a lot of commercials, and I I'm sure you do too, you see them. Why do they always, when they're talking about the medicines, if you will, about for HIV, why do they always present it as it's a uh gay black man's disease? To me, it it it caused other people, like these teenagers, you you talked about young people, to think that it doesn't affect them.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Well, the reason you're gonna see that, you know, in the commercials would be that the group that's most affected would be the black man who we call, you know, um in the closet. Yes, you can say that, or we call it MSN, like, you know, males who have sex with males or you know, uh some people call homosexuals. And so that would be the largest, you know, class in the yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

So they're the largest, but people shouldn't think that it's only them.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Oh, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Because then you can fall prey to this, right? Because you think it is just about them because they never show me.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Yeah, and after that class will come will be black women. So, you know, heterosexual women, black women. So it does affect everybody.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Okay, yeah, and as a matter of fact, one of the shows I did in the past about uh HIV, and that was one of the things we specifically talked about was women, and I'm gonna definitely bring you back in the future so we can just really break that down from you know from your perspective and your expertise. But now in wrapping this up, I want you to take it from here and just give the viewers in this last segment an overall about infectious diseases, and again, just sort of kind of for someone who may have just tuned in at the end of the show, just take it from the top, the different diseases that we've covered today.

SPEAKER_03 21:46

All right, so infectious disease is a huge and very vast specialty. You know, every think about every single infection we have in the world. You can't even think about it. Uh, we deal with it, you know, we treat uh, you know, to the best of our abilities, but again, um I'm more focused on where we are in that community here in Memphis and what is destroying our community and right now is gonna be STIs, you know, sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and syphilis, especially amongst our young people. So something I really want to be very clear, you know, is that for parents, you know, uh we need to have those talks, sit down with our kids and talk to them and see where they are. For the kids that are sexually active, you have to know your status. Get tested.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

You know, we're gonna have to have a part two, right? Because they're wrapping me up right now. Oh my god, this is so good. So uh hopefully we can uh get you back in soon. And this has been really wonderful.