Case Study on Aids and Condoms
The AIDS virus is spreading rapidly throughout India and Brazil. Due to the differences in culture and political policies, these two countries are attacking the AIDS epidemic problem in two totally different ways. On one hand, Brazil plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for teaching public AIDS awareness mainly to married women and Carnival goers. In comparison, India's government has identified specific targets of their society in order to reach the public and spread the information about AIDS awareness.
Brazil's Approach
The Brazilian Health Ministry has already conducted a majority of its research first hand, gathering much of the primary research needed before spending the earmarked $300 million next year for fighting this epidemic. However, the Health Ministry's plan to distribute 250 million condoms, primarily in urban slums, would be inefficient and a waste of money. In the first place, the fact remains that Brazilian men apparently refuse to wear condoms for protection because they are expensive to buy and the men do not like to wear them. Also, Brazilian women do not have much say as to whether the male in the relationship wears a condom or not during sex. Therefore, even if they know that their sexual partner is sleeping around, these women are afraid of being beaten, or losing their spouse, and will not insist upon condom usage for protection. Since asking their mate to use a condom is considered an insult to a Brazilian male, consequently, distributing condoms in this atmosphere would be a futile waste of resources. Instead of spending a majority of the funding on the purchasing and distribution of male condoms, the ministry should buy more of the female version. As a result, this would allow some of the females in the Brazilian population to take control of arming themselves against the epidemic. Unfortunately, because this version is three times the cost of male condoms, they would not be able to buy as many. However, the female condom was highly approved by the women who tested it, so the expense for purchasing and distributing them would be more effective. In addition, the main goal of the Brazilian campaign against AIDS should be targeted at raising awareness among the youth in Brazil. Since the older population is more resistant to readily change their sexual practices by using condoms, future AIDS awareness needs to be aimed at the children and teenagers of Brazil.
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.
Since the development of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in the 1990s, HIV/AIDs has evolved from a death sentence into a treatable disease. It has presented a unique global health problem because while the treatments were very effective, they were extremely expensive, required advanced laboratory monitoring, were prescribed indefinitely, and required excellent patient compliance. In many of the developing countries devastated by AIDs/HIV, the health and societal infrastructures often had difficult supporting an effective treatment program. For that reason, it is estimated that 71% of HIV/AID cases are in sub-Saharan Africa and only 39% of of them are on ART (AVERT, 2015). Southern Africa is often considered the “epicenter” of the
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. The impact of AIDS on the region is such that it is now affecting demographics - changing mortality and fertility rates, reducing lifespan, and ultimately affecting population growth.
The article has changed my knowledge and opinion about HIV prevention because it provided me with a multidimensional view on the gender roles that affect society that have been ignored in many prevention programs. We must consider the role of men in women’s risk especially the beliefs, values, norms, attitudes towards women and the power in males in relationships. The article provided a new insight on how to implement new prevention programs for women.
My Signature Assignment Case Study will be on the topic on AIDS. My topic will be about the raise of AIDs and HIV a global epidemic that needs to be solved. The numbers of this epidemic have risen greatly over the past few years. This epidemic affects a large number of individuals have been affected by this and even had to have death as an outcome. The numbers go that more than 500,000 people have died from the disease in the United States of America (Henry, 2011). The number is almost equal to or the value of the population of a large city. There is as many as 1.7 million people in the United States that have HIV. What makes that number even scarier, is that a majority of individuals do not know that they are carrying the disease(Henry, 2011). This causes a lot of issues with even more people getting the disease because those they might have received it from an individual who did not know they were even carrying the disease (Henry, 2011). In this Case Study, I will go into detail on how we can make ethical decision making with this issue, and possibly develop a solution to stop this epidemic from spreading (Perlin, 2002).
Unfortunately, numbers of infected person multiply rapidly all over the world. According to William C. Cockerham (1998) reported in his book that the United Nation estimated, up to 40 million people, may be infected with AIDS by the year 2000. In Hong Kong, referred to fig.1.1-1.7, the situation is similar, the report of infected cases increase continuously.
Though those who are infected represent less the one percent of the total population, the environmental conditions of the society by which India presides are conducive to the rapid spread of this problem. More importantly, of those that are infected, thirty nine percent are women which increases the probability of parent-to-child transmission of this STI(Sexually Transmitted Infection). While an entire forty percent of the HIV bearing population is constituted by women, only a fraction of a percentage point of those women who choose to get screened test positive for the infection indicating a major problem—those who have it, are unaware or choose not be screened*. Close to eighty five percent of the transfers are through sexual transmission, five percent through parent-to-child transmission and the remainder through injecting drug use. As observed, red-light districts in India have given obvious rises and have some of the highest incidence of AIDS (fifty percent in Mumbai and Pune), but the other regions of the country do not r...
PJP is known as Pneumocytis jiroveci and is a fungus that infects the lungs. This fungus mainly infects those with an unsubstantial immune system, in this case, HIV is the cause of a weakened immune system that allowed Pneumocytis jiroveci to infect the lungs. PJP is found in the environment and was very rare before the AIDS epidemic. The common symptoms of PJP are fever, fast breathing pattern, trouble breathing with activity, and a dry cough. PJP can be life threatening if allowed to lead to respiratory failure and progress to death, however early treatment is often effective with corticosteroids and anti-infection medications. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000671.htm
AIDS, or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has been one of the most threatening diseases of the 20th century. Ever since it has been discovered in 1981, it has been constantly infecting men, women, adults, newly born children, homosexuals and heterosexuals. In definition AIDS is an extremely serious disorder that results from severe damage to the body’s defense against disease. Even though AIDS was born in an era of sophisticated medical and surgical developments, it still remains incurable. The ways through which the HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, can be transmitted are: blood transfusion, contaminated needles used in drug addiction, from an infected husband to his wife through sexual intercourse, or from an infected mother to her new born baby during pregnancy. Because it is that much spread and so far incurable, AIDS has aroused a lot hysterical fears and a number of controversies and ethical questions related to the patient’s rights, doctor’s rights and the right of the public at large. While some people think that AIDS patients should be isolated in quarantines, alienated from the rest of the world, others find no reason in this harsh form of separation and discrimination against the infected patients. The patients must also have the right to lead a normal life that must be respected by all the public, and government too. Although AIDS is not more contagious than any other disease, its patients are suffering both social and medical discrimination, and that is not only unethical but could also cause an increase in the spread of the disease. The fact that AIDS is no more contagious than any other disease, makes the reasons behind the people’s fear of AIDS totally illogical. All people are thinking of is that it’s a deadly virus, but there is a lot more to know about AIDS than this. People must be more educated about this virus and how it may be transmitted in order to protect themselves and avoid their constant paranoia about AIDS patients. AIDS, unlike many diseases, is not transmitted by shaking hands, or through coughs, or by swimming in the same pool with an HIV positive. It has also been proven that even the exposure to body fluids such as saliva through deep kissing wouldn’t transmit the virus. This is because the HIV is found to be very weak in open air; it can easily be killed by ordinary household disinfectants (Kelly 33-34).
In 2000, donors provided less than one billion of the estimated eight billion condoms required in developing countries and Eastern Europe to greatly expand access for those in need. Many developing country governments are providing and promoting condoms as part of their HIV prevention strategies, but for the poorest countries, assistance from the wealthier developed countries remains the main source of condoms. In other countries, sustainable prevention efforts that include promotion and provision of condoms are hurt by inadequate government commitment.
From the above situations and examples, the globalized international society has helped reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. However, it is because globalized, international organizations have been able to come forward to solve this issue. At the same time, it is important to remember that many international organizations or states act in self interest due to which many developing states like Brazil initially faced problems in solving the issue of HIV/AIDS. Therefore, health issues such as that of HIV/AIDS are not only shaped by the science of biology, but also through policies, decisions and events in this globalized international society.
To decrease HIV transmission and to minimise the impact of the epidemic, on children, young people and families, through the growing effectiveness of national action to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the East of Asia and the Pacific regions. They aim to provide practical support and aid at community level, encouraging the full engament of people affected by HIV/AIDS.
Perspectives in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for Condoms. Retrieved March 9, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001053.htm
The AIDS virus is the most common disease, and with no cure, an infected person will die. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of AIDS infections occur in developing countries where the world’s worst living conditions exist.
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.