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The stigman attached to hiv
Impact of HIV in South Africa
The Prevention of the Spread of HIV
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The aim of this literature review is to discuss HIV and AIDS in South Africa. HIV and AIDS has been a prominent health concern in the southern part of Africa. This essay will explain how HIV & AIDS can be contracted and transmitted, the effect it has on the victims, the impact it has on the economy, why the rates of HIV and AIDS are rapidly increasing in South Africa, how it can be reduced, then followed by a conclusion that will summarise this entire review.
HIV and AIDS has been termed a sexually transmitted disease (STD) in South Africa, because it is mainly transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse; but then HIV and AIDS can also be transmitted through circumstances where they was no control such as, blood transfusions, sharp objects e.g. razor blades, needles, injections and in some cases it is transmitted at birth if the mother is not on medication during pregnancy (positives women’s network, 2012). Moreover one cannot contract HIV and AIDS through kisses, handshakes, hugs etc. It can only be contracted through any form of blood exchange with an HIV patient.
One major impact HIV and AIDS has on the South African economy is by reducing labour supply through the increased illness and mortality rates (Avert, 2014). This means that illness has a direct impact workforce and most productive years of the person’s life. This has led to a large number of unemployed people and raising the rates of poverty due to the fact that these people cannot work they find it hard to feed sometimes, pay for proper health care or take care of their families. Because there is reduction in labour supply there is also a reduction in the production of the country which means a reduction in exports and an...
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...AIDS patients need to be shown love and care, this may prolong their health. They need to be understood because they tend to get moody and have high tempers. Most of the patients develop a low self esteem and become less confident as they were before. Sometimes their society looks down on them and this stigmatizes them. They lose their jobs, family and friends in fear of contagion.
To reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS the South African government needs to educate the young ones in school so they can have an eye opener about this chronic illness and its effects. HIV negative people need to be educated too, in order to create an environment free of fear of HIV biased social attitudes and no stereotypes towards HIV (Visser p. 2007). Schools should offer more sex education to students so they can be educated on the implications of unprotected sex.
It is crucial to understand that, unlike most transmissible diseases, AIDS/HIV is not transmitted through sneezing, coughing, eating or drinking from common utensils, or even being around an infected person. Casual contact with AIDS/HIV infected persons does not place others at risk. HIV/AIDS can be passed through unprotected sex with an infected person, sharing contaminated needles, from infected mother to baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding, and through direct exposure to infected blood or blood
What would you say if I asked you to tell me what you think is causing the death of so many people in the horn of Africa? AIDS? Starvation? War? Would it surprise you if I told you that it all boils down to the women of Africa? Kofi Annan attempts to do just this in his essay “In Africa, Aids Has a Woman's Face.” Annan uses his work to tell us that women make up the “economic foundation of rural Africa” and the greatest way for Africa to thrive is through the women of Africa's freedom, power, and knowledge.
Statistics have been show a frightening increase in AIDS/HIV cases. As of the year 2012, South Africa has had the most cases of HIV/AIDS coming to a total of 6,070,800 ("Country Comparison :: HIV/AIDS”). This is a huge contributing factor to this conspira...
HIV, like many other STD's is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse. However, it can also be transmitted by infected "blood transfusions", an infected mother to fetus, and sharing infected needles as well as breast milk (2009, NIAID). The reason it is really unlikely that a person should contract this virus by skin contact, is because the way HIV invades a person's system (2009, NIAID). The virus itself has special markers on its plasma membrane called "CD Markers" that locate specific cells within a person's body that target specific cells such as helper-T Cells and Microphages (2012, Phelan). The HIV virus cannot invade cells that it cannot latch on to, so a handshake with a person who has HIV will not transfer the disease because skin cells do not have the appropriate receptors that the virus can attack. When the HIV cells find the specific cell it targets, they attach themselves to its surface and then releases its DNA proteins into the cell. The virus's DNA then take over the host cell's DNA and commands it to create copies of the HIV virus. The cell produces viral RNA which creates viral proteins that migrate to the cell edge and form an undeveloped HIV virus which then is expelled from the cell and matures into a new copy of the HIV virus.
Spink, Gemma. "AIDS." AVERTing HIV and AIDS. 23 Dec 2009. Web. 11 Jan 2010. .
It considers the present and future impact of the AIDS epidemic on major demographic measures such as fertility, mortality, life expectancy, gender, age, and family structure. Although the sub-Saharan region accounts for just 10% of the world’s population, 67% (22.5 million) of the 33.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 1998 were residents of one of the 34 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and of all AIDS deaths since the epidemic started, 83% have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (Gilks, 1999, p. 180). Among children under age 15 living with HIV/AIDS, 90% live in sub-Saharan Africa, as do 95% of all AIDS orphans. In several of the 34 sub-Saharan nations, 1 out of every 4 adults is HIV-positive (UNAIDS, 1998, p. 1). Taxing low-income countries with health care systems inadequate to handle the burden of non-AIDS related illnesses, AIDS has devastated many of the sub-Saharan African economies.
Half of the world’s cases are found in what is referred to as the AIDS belt, a chain of countries in eastern and southern Africa that is home to two percent of the global population. The main vehicle for spreading HIV throughout Africa is heterosexual intercourse. In contrast, this is the opposite compared to the U.S. where the virus is usually transmitted through homosexual intercourse or contaminated syringes shared by drug users. Besides heterosexual intercourse, HIV transmission through transfusion and contaminated medical equipment is common in sub-Saharan Africa. Africans infected with HIV die much sooner after diagnosis than HIV-infected people in other parts of the world.
Today millions of people globally are plagued with HIV/AIDS; some of which were contracted unknowingly through heterosexual sexual contact, others unknowingly through homosexual contact and surprisingly some who set out to contract HIV/AIDS purposefully. Bareback sex refers to intercourse without the use of any barrier protections to prevent the transmission of bodily fluids between participants. This is an extremely high risk behavior given the number of sexually transmitted diseases, and not knowing the status of HIV in them or in their partners. Unfortunately, in some developing countries the technology and condom supply are very little in respect to the sexually active population, and therefore results in more cases of STD’s and HIV/AIDS.
Students should be informed about more than just “don’t have sex” because eventually it is going to happen and they need to be educated on the proper way to handle the situations. Because students are mostly taught abstinence it has created the situation to where researchers find” Abstinence-only education, instead of reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, has made teenagers and young adults more vulnerable to ST...
In every single sector of Malawi's society, the negative impact of HIV and AIDS in Malawi can be felt, in directly or directly. The negative impact of HIV and AIDS in Malawi include: loss of human capital in all sectors (formal and informal work environments), a contribution to the decrease in the average Malawian's life expectancy, an increase in societies burden of welfare for vulnerable groups especially children and old people amongst other negative effect of this pandemic. (Bollinger, ., et. al. 2000, pp. 3) stated that “The two major economic effects are a reduction in the labor supply and increased costs”. Every area of society feels this strain, and it can be easily deduced that no on based in Malawi can confidently say that they have never lost someone who has died from the virus or more so, it's corresponding disease.
A country once in denial now has it’s South African political leaders addressing the disease that is slowing killing their population The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which evolves into acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is affecting South Africa socially as well as economically. This disease is also leaving over a million and a half children orphaned. Most of these children are not only orphaned but living with the virus as well.
In 1981, a new fatal, infectious disease was diagnosed--AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome). It began in major cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. People, mostly homosexual men and intravenous drug users, were dying from very rare lung infections or from a cancer known as Kaposi’s sarcoma. They have not seen people getting these diseases in numerous years. Soon, it also affected hemophiliacs, blood recipients, prostitutes and their customers, and babies born from AIDS-infected women. AIDS was soon recognized as a worldwide health emergency, and as a fatal disease with no known cure, that quickly became an epidemic. When high-profile victims began to contract the virus, such as basketball star Magic Johnson, the feeling spread quickly that anyone, not just particular groups of people, could be at risk. AIDS impairs the human body’s immune system and leaves the victim susceptible to various infections. With new research, scientists think that the disease was first contracted through a certain type of green monkey in Africa, then somehow mutated into a virus that a human could get. AIDS is a complicated illness that may involve several phases. It is caused by a virus that can be passed from person to person. This virus is called HIV, or Human Immuno-deficiency Virus. In order for HIV to become full-blown AIDS, your T-cell count (number of a special type of white-blood cells that fight off diseases) has to drop below 200, or you have to get one of the symptoms of an AIDS-induced infection.
Without proper knowledge and equipment, it is very difficult to prevent the spread of AIDS. Ever since the illness was discovered thirty years ago, it has taken the lives of thirty million people and affected the lives of many, many more. The AIDS pandemic has been and still is most severe in third-world countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It has impacted the economies of entire nations by crippling and killing individuals in the most productive years of their lives (“HIV/AIDS”). AIDS greatly influences the government sector, agricultural sector, private corporations, and individual households.
It is reported by Avert that many young women and men are contracting HIV rapidly. People who carry this virus are often older men and sex workers. Once these men get marry to young girls, they will often engage in sexual activities, and due to the girls still being young and not having much knowledge about the disease, they will not be able to take precautions. Also, due to the country being in poverty, there is not much education or teaching going towards informing young children about the disease. Studies have also shown that in Sub-Saharan Africa, 26% of people who are HIV-positive are also developing tuberculosis (De Cock, Soro, Coulibaly, & Lucas, 1992). Sub-Saharan Africa has also took measures in order to suppress the spread. It is noted that the country also began to use condoms more often than before. Another method that the country is using is influencing males to get medical circumcision. Reports shown that if 80% males get circumcised, it can reduce the 3.4 million new infection. This can be a major stepping stone for the countries since Sub-Saharan Africa is getting hit by HIV the hardest. With trends and data analysis, it is showing that the country is slowly and gradually getting
The emergence of HIV/AIDS is viewed globally as one of the most serious health and developmental challenges our society faces today. Being a lentivirus, HIV slowly replicates over time, attacking and wearing down the human immune system subsequently leading to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) at which point the affected individual is exposed to life threatening illnesses and eventual death. Despite the fact that a few instances of this disease have been accounted for in all parts of the world, a high rate of the aforementioned living with HIV are situated in either low or medium wage procuring nations. The Sub-Saharan region Africa is recognized as the geographic region most afflicted by the pandemic. In previous years, people living with HIV or at risk of getting infected did not have enough access to prevention, care and treatment neither were they properly sensitized about the disease. These days, awareness and accessibility to all the mentioned (preventive methods, care etc.) has risen dramatically due to several global responses to the epidemic. An estimated half of newly infected people are among those under age 25(The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic). It hits hard as it has no visible symptoms and can go a long time without being diagnosed until one is tested or before it is too late to manage.