I have finally completed my service learning this week for this semester at the Waikiki Health Center. At the end of my reflections I will explain how I felt doing this particular service and what I have gotten out of it. There have been many questions that were microbiology related. However, many of the same topics and questions carne up. Needless to say I didn't mind answering the same and sometimes redundant questions because the answer given would be helpful and useful.

A couple of weeks ago one of my callers had a question regarding kissing. He wanted to know how safe is it to kiss someone. I told hirn that it is safe to a certain extent. I told him that it was possible to catch herpes from someone if they had a cold sore on their lip or in their mouth. I also told him that mono is known as the kissing disease. I had advised him that he should know thc person that he was going to kiss very well. He wanted to know if would be able to catch the AII)S virus through kissing. I told him that it has never been proven but neither has it been disproved so there is a possibility to catch it through kissing especially if he has a sore or a cut on or in his mouth.

Lately I have had calls regarding other STDS other than AIDS. I had a pregnant female caller who had questions about genital warts. She wanted to know the symptoms and whether or not she would pass it on to her baby in her womb. I had told her that the symptoms normally show up one to six months after having sex, there are small bumpy warts on the sex organs and the anus, and there are itching or burning feelings around the sex organs. I told her that she could give the genital warts to her baby during childbirth. I also told her that she can give them to her sexual partner. I advised her to get them treated because the longer genital warts go untreated they will continue to grow and that they are harder to remove. I finally told her that genital warts may lead to pro cancerous conditions.

I had a male caller who was scared that he had contracted syphilis from his girlfriend and so he wanted some information on the disease. I told him that there were two stages in syphilis. In the first stage the symptoms usually show up three to four weeks after having sex. There is a painless, reddish brown sore on either the mouth or the nose. The sore lasts four to eight weeks in individuals that go untreated. Even after the sores heal I told him that syphilis is still in the body.

In the second stage I told him that the symptoms show up six weeks to six months after having sex, there is a rash anywhere on the body, there will be flu-like feelings and even when the rash and flu-like feelings go away the syphilis is still in the body. I also told him the consequences of the disease which are the transmission between sexual partners, a mother with syphilis giving it to her baby during childbirth and if the syphilis goes untreated it can cause heart disease, brain damage, blindness and even death.

I felt really bad for this guy because he was really freaking out and getting all paranoid like he was going to die right then and there. I had to talk to him calmly and just tried to make him calmed down. I told him that it was not the end of the world and that syphilis was treatable. I talked him into calling the receptionist at the Waikiki Health Center to set up an appointment to get tested for the STD to make sure whether or not he had contracted syphilis and then he would get treatment if he was indeed infected with syphilis.

Just this week I had a caller who had some questions on gonorrhea. She wanted to know the symptoms and how serious this sexually transmitted disease was. I informed her that symptoms show up two through twenty one days after having sex and many women and men do not really have symptoms. In women there is a thick yellow or white discharge from the vagina. There is also burning or pain while pissing or having bowel movements. In men there is thick yellow discharge from the penis and there is also a burning or painful feeling while pissing.

I told her that you can give a receive gonorrhea through your sexual partner If it goes untreated, gonorrhea can lead to more serious infection. The reproductive organs can be damaged which will result in sterility and also a mother with gonorrhea can give it to her baby during childbirth.

With all my callers who had some kind of question on a sexually transmitted disease I told them that a way to help prevent catching an STD would be to know your sexual partner very well, the proper use of a latex condom, and if possible, abstinence from sex.

This was the first semester that I have heard about service learning. I am very glad that I decided to participate in it. In the process of helping other people out either by giving out useful information or just listening to a problem, I myself became educated in many ways. Every week that I had volunteered at Waikiki Health Center on the hot-line I always learned new information or a new way to handle a difficult situation.

Volunteering this semester for sentice learning was veIy well worth my time. It has helped me to be more open-minded about a couple of things that I used to be close-minded about before. I plan to keep on volunteering next semester after I take a well deserved break off from school this summer.

The Waikiki Health Center is a very good place for service learning to be continued at because the center really gives a lot to the community and not only are we helping to give back to our community but we also become educated in the process. This was a very interesting and well worth it service learning.

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