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HIV as a Public health problems in Africa
HIV as a Public health problems in Africa
HIV as a Public health problems in Africa
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In 2009 an estimated 33.2 million human beings were unfortunate enough to be infected with AIDS or HIV. A hefty 22.4 million of those individuals live in where the story of humanity began, Sub-Saharan Africa. The good-fortuned United States on the other end of the spectrum ,is home to 1.2 million infected. The statistics for the amount of infected in the U.S. is almost negligible in comparison to those of Africa’s ,because of the obvious difference in amount of infected ,but also in the amount of power the disease has in the confines of each spatial variation. In the growing quest for equality amongst all humanity it is a necessity to understand why Africans are bearing the statistical load and why the number of infected grow in amongst them and are barely noticeable in America. The clever disease thrives on human weaknesses like stereotyping, unjustified hatred and social inequality, and apathy. The toll the disease has on a society is determined by how pervasive those human weakness are. The disease is deadly ,however, the deadliness is exacerbated by our flaws. Because there is no cure or vaccination for HIV, education and awareness or our most effective tools in the fight against HIV and for equality.
In the United States 47 percent of HIV infected are from the homosexual community and future projections predict that those numbers will grow. The growth of the disease amongst this community more so than others points out the underdeveloped social and economic traits in today’s America. The fundamental rule in slowing the spread of HIV is knowing who is infected and who isn’t. Studies show that an infected
individual while take precautionary steps to protect their partner. Many homosexual men are not even awa...
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...f HIV and that puts
huge strain on the flimsy economy. It narrows a future workforce and the work force that currently exist. Because HIV is sexually transmitted , younger people that provide most of the labor are more likely to have the disease. With collapsing economies and no future prospects, African countries will continue to live is sub-human conditions and a perpetual gap in global equality will exist.
As rich as Bill Gates is, the Bill & Malinda Gates foundation is still not enough representation from America to do this problem justice. Pharmaceutical companies need to loosen there grip on medicinal rights allow a production of affordable medicine. An interest needs to be placed on Africa’s future and welfare. Americans need to challenge the accepted idea that Africa is a hopeless continent of endless turmoil and put a stop to the spread of HIV.
To begin with, one of the biggest issues with prior attempts of HIV/AIDS programs is that once a person was told that they had been infected, they were rejected treatment, as stated in Epstein’s piece. Luckily today, it is common for schools to have free HIV testing. This, however, does not solve the issue. Instead of having free HIV testing more commonly available in schools rather than at-your-fingertips, governments should fund worldwide clinics that provide free HIV testing and protection available to all genders. Said clinics could then pair with multiple insurance companies to make treatment as affordable as possible, because if one tests positively, they most likely cannot afford the medication. Treatment can cost from anywhere between $500-$2,700 for one prescription, which can reach
The investigator then goes to South Africa and interviews Dr. Glenda Gray, who works with Dr. Corey. South Africa has the most HIV positive victims in the world, currently. In South Africa, former leaders denied that the HIV virus caused AIDS and did not allow foreign aid to come in to fight the disease. This caused many deaths in South Africa. The whole continent of Africa was ravaged by the epidemic. The significant connection between the transmission of HIV from a pregnant mother to her child is brought up. In 2002, President George W. Bush, in partnership with Bono, started a U.N. Global Initiative to fight the epidemic. However, for the first couple years, the United States was the only country to fund the program. President Bush funded $15 billion, the largest amount of money put up to fight a disease. He started the PEPFAR program (The United States Pre...
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.
Africa is the second largest of the earth's seven continents, covering about twenty-two percent of the world's total land area. From its northern most point, to its southern most tip is the distance of nearly five thousand miles. Africa is both north and south of the equator. The Atlantic Ocean is located west of the continent, and the Indian Ocean is on the east. Width of the continent is also nearly five thousand miles. Although Africa is so large, much of it is inhabitable. Desert soils, which have little organic content, cover large areas. The Sahara Desert, in the northern part, covers more than one fourth of Africa, and the Kalahari Desert is in the southern part of the continent. These two deserts are a natural detriment to the African continent because they make it difficult to reach the inland where most of the people live. Although Africa is relatively close to Europe, travel by land over the Sahara desert is very prohibitive. Another topographical feature that also isolates the central region of Africa is the coastline.
The multinational pharmaceutical firm, Wellcome PLC, brought a product to the market to help treat the symptoms of AIDS and HIV. Wellcome PLC owns an American subsidiary known as the Burroughs Wellcome Company. In 1987, Burroughs Wellcome Company received FDA approval to sale Retrovir, which interferes with the ability of HIV infected cells to produce new virus. Burroughs Wellcome Company finds itself under siege in September 1989 by AIDS activists and various segments of the U.S. government. Despite two reductions in price in the last two years, Burroughs Wellcome Company’s executive management is under unrelenting pressure to decrease the price of Retrovir so that many more people can afford the prescription.
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).
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...
When HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) was first discovered as a disease in 1980, the affected individuals were stigmatized to the extreme. HIV/AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) was first reported with homosexuals and IV drug users, which led the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to label the disease as Gay-related Immune Deficiency, as “gay” individuals were synonymous “drug users” due to their similar activities in the 1980’s (Stine 22). However, it soon became clear that female population were just as susceptible to contracting HIV as males.
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.
...at development. Roads are not well developed in some parts of Africa which increase the transportation cost. Public investors are also not taking interest due to high cost of paved roads in Africa. The accident rate is also increasing as driving license is not compulsory for motorcycles. Health care facilities are also very less in Africa, which leads to deaths due to accidents and diseases. Less health workers, poverty, transportation problems all lead to less health care facilities which result in increase of death rates in Africa.
From the moment scientists identified HIV and AIDS, social responses of fear, denial, stigma and discrimination have accompanied the epidemic. Discrimination has spread rapidly, fuelling anxiety and prejudice against the groups most affected, as well as those living with HIV or AIDS. It goes without saying that HIV and AIDS are as much about social phenomena as they are about biological and medical concerns. Across the world the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS has shown itself capable of triggering responses of compassion, solidarity and support, bringing out the best in people, their families and communities. But the disease is also associated with stigma, repression and discrimination, as individuals affected (or believed to be affected) by HIV have been rejected by their families, their loved ones and their communities. This rejection holds as true in the rich countries of the north as it does in the poorer countries of the south.
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.
...ile the pandemic will absolutely leverage the rate of financial development, structural alterations are furthermore expected to be one of the prime economic hallmarks of the AIDS pandemic (Arndt 427-449). The effect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic can be visualized by the overwhelming change in mortality rate of South Africans. The yearly number of mortalities from HIV increased distinctly between the years 1997, when about 316,559 people died, and 2006 when an estimated 607,184 people died ("HIV AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA"). Those who are currently assuming the burden of the increase in mortality rate are adolescents and young adults. Virtually one-in-three females of ages 25-29, and over 25% of males aged 30-34, are currently living with HIV in South Africa (UNAIDS). The good news, thanks to better supply of ARV treatment, is that life-expectancy has risen vastly since 2005.
... diseases such as AIDS are also becoming a problem in places like Africa. Knowledge of how to prevent these diseases is not widely known, so an increasing number of people are infected. More attention needs to be placed on adequate health care and technology in these countries. While these third world societies may not have the resources with which to implement these changes, more advanced societies certainly do.