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.
Everyday researchers have proposed new methods of how to control the HIV virus from turning into AIDS. A combination of effective HIV medicines help stop the formation of new copies of HIV as it reproduces in your body. This technique helps to keep your CD-4 cell count up and your viral load down. CD-4 cells are one type of immune cells that assist to fight off the virus, the higher your count the stronger your immune system (Nakashima 77). Whereas, your viral load is a measure of HIV in your blood and your treatment goal is to have the lowest viral load possible. People with higher viral loads tend to progress to AIDS and become sick sooner than those with lower viral loads (Nakashima 80). Successful HIV medications can prevent other infections common with AIDS and can help you live longer.
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
"Jones originally envisioned the AIDS quilt as a message that would call upon the conscience of the nation." (Sturken 186)
Different people define success in many different ways. What is considered success by one person may be viewed as failure by another person. Randy Shilts, a homosexual newspaper reporter / author, attempts to make fundamental changes in America’s opinion on AIDS. In Randy Shilts’s essay, "Talking AIDS to Death," he speaks of his experiences as an "AIDS celebrity." At the core of Shilts’s essay is the statement, "Never before have I succeeded so well; never before have I failed so miserably"(221). Shilts can see his accomplishments from two points of view- as a success and as a failure. Despite instant fame, Shilts is not satisfied with the effects his writings has on the general public. Shilts’s "success" and reasons for failure can both be considered when one decides whether or not his efforts were performed in vain.
Heroism can be defined as when one displays could courage. All over the world there are individual heroes. Some of those people start organizations to help people in need. The Magic Johnson Foundation is a heroic organization to help people achieve what they want to achieve while maintaining a good healthy life.
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.
AIDS is a deadly disease that affects people world wide. AIDS is a disease that brings about many social consequences. Many of these consequences result in physical, emotional, and economic problems. AIDS compromises the immune system of the human body, making a person susceptible to many different illnesses and infections. Among these are: unexplained fatigue and weight loss, night sweats and flu-like feelings. These infirmities can interfere with a person’s daily physical tasks. For example, taking a shower, eating, working, excersing, caring for a child, and cooking. Being unable to perform these tasks makes an n individuals life extremely difficult. Individuals with AIDS also experience a number of emotional problems because of the social stigmas attached to AIDS. For instance, a person having to be scared to let others know he or she is infected, and being unable to engage in intimate relations without infecting others. Further emotional problems can be caused with the continuous worry of death, which can inhibit a person’s normal functioning .People who have these issues develop a great deal of emotional problems because one feels that they do not fit into society. AIDS is not only a disease that affects an individual, but it also affects the larger society . This is so because of the financial needs to help fund programs and organizations to help stop the spread of AIDS and help those who suffer from AIDS. Although, the money goes towards helping AIDS victims it is costly for tax payers, when it can go towards helping people and developing educational programs within their communities. Why should the population pay for the bill for the consequences of others? As one can see, AIDS doesn’t only bring about consequences that indirectly affect individuals, but it also brings about consequences for society as well.
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.
time as well as forward. They determined that the first cases of AIDS in the
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).
FIRE IN THE BLOOD an intricate tale of "medicine, monopoly and malice.” It tells the story of how Western pharmaceutical companies and governments aggressively blocked access to affordable AIDS drugs for the countries of Africa and the global south. It is a story of the famous companies to keep profits unconscionably high even at the expense of peoples' lives, and a plea for universal access to affordable, life-saving generic medicines.
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...
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) first came to light in 1981. There has been a long and arduous global effort on the prevention of HIV/AIDS. HIV is a virus that is spread through body fluids that affect the specific T-cells of the immune system. Without treatment HIV infection leads to AIDS and there is no cure for AIDS. HIV infection can be controlled and the importance of primary pre...
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.
This is called antiretroviral therapy (ART), a treatment that can control the virus so that you can live a longer, healthier life and reduce the risk of transmitting this disease to anyone else. ART involves taking a combination of HIV medicines (called an HIV regimen) every day, exactly as prescribed. These HIV medicines prevent HIV from multiplying (making copies of itself), which reduces the amount of HIV in your body. Having less HIV in your body gives your immune system a chance to recover and fight off infections and cancers. Even though there is still some HIV in the body, the immune system is strong enough to fight off infections and cancers. By reducing the amount of HIV in your body, HIV medicines also reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to others. ART is recommended for all people with HIV, regardless of how long they’ve had the virus or how healthy they are. If left untreated, HIV will attack the immune system and eventually progress to