More handpicked essays just for you.
Social and economic effects of HIV and AIDS
Impact of globalization on hiv/aids
Impact of globalization on hiv/aids
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
By the year 2000, 58 million people have been infected by HIV/AIDS and alarming numbers such as 22 million would have already died. And the epidemic continues to spread. HIV/AIDS historically is considered to be one of the longest running worldwide epidemics that we have ever seen, and figures cannot be placed on the true death tolls or estimation of the damage as the cycle still is yet to reach an end (Whiteside 2002). With Africa being the worst hit continent in the world in terms of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the severity of it’s prevalence; one can only begin to question whether HIV/AIDS and poverty and directly connected or the inter-linkages exacerbate one or the other. This paper aims to argue that HIV/AIDS is a manifestation of poverty, and simultaneously poverty contributes to growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Development in response both to poverty reduction and to HIV/AIDS is complicated when both have multi-dimensional and multi-faceted impacts on a society, whether it be social, economic or human development impacts. This paper will argue that pre-existing socio economic conditions within a country such as high levels of poverty, poor sanitation, malnutrition, environmental degradation and poor public healthcare systems and limited access to preventative care are crucial factors in contributing to the transfer of the infection (Pasteur: 2000, Mann: 1999).
African governments have given in to the whim’s of international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in social and health policies, and with this, has come a shift away from former emphasis on social justice and equitable market efficiency to public health services for all now being perceived as a major threat ...
... middle of paper ...
...he likelihood of women and girls engaging in risky sexual behaviour as a means of survival particularly when formal employment and other means of employment do not provide enough income to cover even the most basic of necessities. Extreme poverty fosters an element of high-risk behaviour and corrodes
(ILO: 2005).
The World Bank (1997) stated that “widespread poverty and unequal income distribution of income that typify underdevelopment, the lack of choices and the inability to determine one’s own destiny fuel the HIV epidemic.” Contestably studies from African countries which delve deeper in to the root causes and impacts of the correlation between HIV/AIDS and poverty through analysing statistical epidemiological and socioeconomic data suggest that there is a notable correlation between the spreading of HIV/AIDS and wealth / more prosperous states within Africa.
The issues discussed in 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa are extremely complex, as they are all interrelated and compound the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; however, Nolen does a tremendous job of disassembling the umbrella term of HIV/AIDS into different themes. Nolen’s presentation of poverty is very comprehensive, covering the impact of poverty on AIDS while presenting other points of view, and making the correct decision to debunk the connotation of AIDS as a “disease of poverty”. Nolen’s inclusion of all sides of the issue makes her presentation of poverty truly outstanding. Nolen accurately uses evidence and testimony to offer insight on poverty, AIDS, their connection, and their impact on each other. She correctly identifies that AIDS not only affects the lives of already impoverished people, but also sucks more people into poverty by weakening their health and removing their opportunities.
"Jones originally envisioned the AIDS quilt as a message that would call upon the conscience of the nation." (Sturken 186)
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.
AIDS is slowly becoming the number one killer across the globe. Throughout numerous small countries, AIDS has destroyed lives, taken away mothers, and has left hopeless children as orphans. The problem remains that funding for the diseases’ medical research is limited to none. In the country Brazil, HIV/AIDS has been compared to the bubonic plague, one of the oldest yet, most deadly diseases to spread rapidly across Europe (Fiedler 524). Due to this issue, Brazil’s government has promised that everyone who has been diagnosed with either HIV or AIDS will receive free treatment; however, this treatment does not include help in purchasing HIV medications, that “carry astronomical price tags” (Fiedler 525). Generic drug companies have been able to produce effective HIV medications that are not as costly if compared to the prices given by the huge pharmaceutical companies. In contrast, the U.S. government has now intervened with these generic companies hindering them from making HIV medications, which may not be as efficient if made by the pharmaceutical companies. Not only are these drug companies losing thousands of dollars against generic drug companies, but also tremendous profit that is demanded for marketing these expensive drugs as well. “How many people must die without treatment until the companies are willing to lower their prices, or to surrender their patients so generic makers can enter market? (Fiedler 525).” With this question in mind, what ways can we eliminate the HIV/AIDS epidemic across the world? With research, education, testing, and funding we can prevent the spread of HIV to others and hopefully find a cure.
The author mentions a few key take away main points. First of all, solutions must address the underlying causes of HIV risk among women. This mainly includes poverty and disempowerment because women in lower living standar...
...g humanities survival as a whole. Treatment centers for curable diseases in Africa only promote dependency on foreign aid, how will these countries ever develop medical technology of their own if there is no need for it? Higher survival rates in children due to vaccinations also means more children are likely to survive until adulthood, which means they will also have children who will be born into the same rural jobless society their parents came from. This cycle can never be broken unless change is sought from within the country, not from others attempting to push the process along with funds. The simple fact is no matter how many schools or hospitals are built somewhere, unless the is a drastic change in the ideology of the people, those resources will continue to be mismanaged and the demographic transition from developing, to developed will never occur.
According to the World Health Organization, the reason why there are many Ebola outbreaks in West Africa is because they have “very weak health systems, lacking human and infrastructural resources, having only recently emerged from long periods of conflict and instability.” A hum...
Child mortality is an ongoing global health issue that impacts the developing Global South at a higher rate than the Global North. The overall global rate of child mortality has decreased over the last 50 years yet rates in Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced little change and one in four countries within Sub-Saharan have seen an increased, showing the poorest progress and slowest decline globally (Mogford 2004 p. 94). Sub-Saharan Africa continues to have great obstacles in decreasing child mortality. One of the main causes for high child mortality is the effect HIV and AIDS has on the region. Child mortality caused by HIV and AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa would dramatically improve with better education, lowering poverty and with funding and medical accessibility.
Throughout history, the black people of South Africa have been oppressed by the country's apartheid government. In 1994, the apartheid era ended as the new, democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, was sworn into office. Although the abolition of the apartheid era was an enormous turn-around for South Africa, throughout this transformation, a new underlying situation threatened the endurance of the country; a situation that would prove to be an even "more formidable foe than apartheid" (Kapp, p1202 2004). This threat has evolved into the full-blown pandemic of the HIV/AIDS virus.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, commonly known as HIV/AIDS is a disease, with which the human immune system, unlike in other disease, cannot cope. AIDS, which is caused by the HIV virus, causes severe disorder of the immune system and slowly progresses through stages which disable the body’s capability to protect and instead makes it vulnerable for other infections. The first blood sample to contain HIV was drawn in 1959 in Zaire, Africa while molecular genetics have suggested that the epidemic first began in the 1930s (Smallman & Brown, 2011). Currently, according to the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, 35.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV. In 2012, an estimated 2.3 million people became newly infected with the virus and 1.6 million people lost their lives to AIDS (Fact Sheet, UNAIDS). It is due to the globalized international society that a disease which existed in one part of the world has managed to infect so many around the world. Globalization is narrowly defined by Joseph Stiglitz as "the removal of barriers to free trade and the closer integration of national economies" (Stiglitz, 2003). Globalization has its effects in different aspects such as economy, politics, culture, across different parts of the world. Like other aspects, globalization affects the health sector as well. In a society, one finds different things that connect us globally. As Barnett and Whiteside point out (2000), “health and wellbeing are international concerns and global goods, and inherent in the epidemic are lessons to be learned regarding collective responsibility for universal human health” (Barnett & Whiteside, 2000). Therefore, through all these global connections in the international society, t...
Nearly 50,000 people, including 30,000 children, die each day due to poverty-related problems and preventable disease in underdeveloped Countries. That doesn’t include the other millions of people who are infected with AIDS and other incurable diseases. Especially those living in Sub-Saharan Africa (70%), or “the Third-World,” and while we fight to finish our homework, children in Africa fight to survive without food, or clean water. During the next few paragraphs I will give proof that poverty and disease are the two greatest challenges facing under developed countries.
London, England. The.. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine n.d., Session 5: The role of the state. in global health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England. Ricci J.
AIDS is a dangerous disease caused by a virus known as HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) that has led to the deaths of millions of individuals around the world, especially in sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria. The reason the disease is so dangerous is because it essentially destroys an infected individual’s immune system, leaving him or her to become more prone to contracting dangerous infections and cancers that cannot be fought off due to the lack of T helper cells. The HIV/AIDS epidemic officially began in Nigeria in 1985 when the first two cases of the disease were identified in the country’s largest city, Lagos; they were later reported to an international AIDS conference in 1986 (Adeyi, Kanki, Odutolu, and Idoko, 18). Though nine HIV testing centers were constructed and the National Expert Advisory Committee on AIDS (NEACA) was created by the Federal Ministry of Health in 1987, it was not until democracy was established in 1999 under President Olusegun Obansanjo that the country began a serious widespread effort to combat the disease (Adeyi, et al, 19). During this time gap, the number of infected Nigerians had greatly increased for various reasons, including Nigerians’ insufficient knowledge about the disease, shortage of medication, and lack of HIV testing.
There is no doubt that European colonialism has left a grave impact on Africa. Many of Africa’s current and recent issues can trace their roots back to the poor decisions made during the European colonial era. Some good has resulted however, like modern medicine, education, and infrastructure. Africa’s history and culture have also been transformed. It will take many years for the scars left by colonization to fade, but some things may never truly disappear. The fate of the continent may be unclear, but its past provides us with information on why the present is the way it is.
HIV does not only affect the well-being of individuals, it has large impacts on households, communities and even nations as a whole. Peer discussions and personal research has also made me realize that some of the countries suffering from this HIV epidemic also rather unfortunately suffer from other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, relative poverty and economic stagnation. Despite these setbacks, new inte...