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.
In the gay community a group of sexual deviants labeled as “bug chasers”, which describes openly HIV negative gay men who have unprotected sex with HIV positive gay men in an attempt to acquire HIV/AIDS, are thriving and gaining momentum daily. “Bug chasers” and those who engage in bareback sex do so for a variety of reasons, but each individual seems to have his/her own reasoning for why they like it. A majority of men and woman believe that condoms take away from the natural feeling of sex, and that bare backing allows partners to be more intimate. They believe that being more “intimate” with a sexual partner means a greater level of trust and communication between them. As for “bug chasers” many of these men want to contract HIV so that they don’t have to worry about whether or not they are positive. There is also a group of gay men determined to join the “Elite Gay Society” a belief in special gatherings for HIV positive men to engage in unprotected sex with each other in orgies and oth...
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...se of condoms in the brothels.
I believe that this would be very effective in the United States because it assumes that most people are sexually active and promotes the use of safe sex. The training aids used in Ugandan presentations as well as in British presentations were very explicit; they not only described exactly what would happen to people, but also showed unadulterated pictures of how it affects the body and the genitals. Unfortunately in America, politicians assume that this type of approach is too explicit and will not sit well with the majority (Christian) population. For some reason they are also very strict on believing that most people wait until they are married to become sexually active and are monogamous in all of their relations. They are essentially blind to the way that the country works because it is not the way they want the country to work.
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.
Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in the early 1980s the issue of sex education for American youth has had the attention of the nation. There are about 400,000 teen births every year in the U.S, with about 9 billion in associated public costs. STI contraction in general, as well as teen pregnancy, have put the subject even more so on the forefront of the nation’s leading issues. The approach and method for proper and effective sex education has been hotly debated. Some believe that teaching abstinence-only until marriage is the best method while others believe that a more comprehensive approach, which includes abstinence promotion as well as contraceptive information, is necessary. Abstinence-only program curriculums disregard medical ethics and scientific accuracy, and have been empirically proven to be ineffective; therefore, comprehensive sex education programs which are medically accurate, science-based and empirically proven should be the standard method of sex education for students/children in the U.S.
It has been almost thirty three years since the first federal funding was put to use in “. . . sex education programs that promote abstinence-only-until-marriage to the exclusion of all other approaches . . .” according to the article “Sex education” (2010) published by “Opposing Viewpoints in Context;” a website that specializes in covering social issues. Since then a muddy controversy has arisen over whether that is the best approach. On one hand is the traditional approach of abstinence (not having sex before marriage), and on the other is the idea that what is being done is not enough, and that there needs to be a more comprehensive approach. This entails not only warning against sex, but also teaching teens about how to have “Safe Sex” (“Sex Education,” 2010).
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. .
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. In industrialized countries, the survival time after diagnosis of AIDS ranges from 9 to 26 months, but in Africa the survival time for patients is 5 to 9 months (UNAIDS 3). Factors, such as lower access to health care, poorer quality of health care services, poorer levels of average health and nutrition, and greater exposure to pathogens that cause infection all contribute to the shorter survival in Africa. It is difficult to stop the flood of AIDS cases in Africa because it is not yet known by researchers the factors that contribute to outstanding prevalence of the disease among heterosexuals. This diagnosis will help determine how likely it is that heterosexual epidemics will spread to Asia or the West.
The practice of homosexuality is a threat to general health. Cancer and sexually transmitted diseases can disrupt good health. Research and screening has shown that men who are gay are more likely to contract AIDS. AIDS is one of the final stages of HIV, which is a sexually transmitted disease. According to Ashraf, “men having sex with men (MSM) are at the higher risk of getting infected by AIDS because anal sex is not a safe sex practice and the people who are involved in the practice of homosexuality are more vulnerable than any other group to get infected by this deadly disease” (16). He proves that anal sex is not safe and can cause AIDS. A common way of intercourse for gay men is anal sex, meaning that they are more likely to contract AIDS. He also mentions the number of reported AIDS cases in the United States that involve men who have sex with men have 355,409 cases or 46%. Almost half of the cases of AIDS come from men who are homosexual. This statistic supports the statement that men who participate in same sex practices, are more likely to get infected by AIDS. As of now, there is no cure for AIDS, so when someone contracts AIDS they ...
time as well as forward. They determined that the first cases of AIDS in the
Not surprisingly the lack of useful sexual information is one of the reasons of the spreading sex related diseases. According to The American Social Health Association (1998) each year there are near ten million of new cases of sexually transmitted diseases among the teenage...
Keywords- heterosexual HIV infection, HIV infections due to sex, HIV infection due to male female sexual relation, causes of heterosexual HIV infection, precautions of heterosexual HIV infection, preventions from heterosexual HIV infection, Statistics of heterosexual HIV infection, Risk of HIV due to sex, Factors leading to heterosexual HIV infection, factors of heterosexual HIV infection, factors of HIV infections due to sex, risk of HIV due to sex, risk of HIV, biggest cause oh HIV, HIV and sex, heterosexuality and HIV, heterosexuality and HIV infections, (16)
Sex education in public schools has been a controversial issue in the United States for over a decade. With the HIV and teen pregnancy crises growing, sex education is needed.
In many societies people living with HIV and AIDS are often seen as shameful. In some societies the infection is associated with minority groups or behaviours, for example, homosexuality, In some cases HIV/AIDS may be linked to 'perversion' and those infected will be punished. Also, in some societies HIV/AIDS is seen as the result of personal irresponsibility. Sometimes, HIV and AIDS are believed to bring shame upon the family or community. And whilst negative responses to HIV/AIDS unfortunately widely exist, they often feed upon and reinforce dominant ideas of good and bad with respect to sex and illness, and proper and improper behaviours.
Such benefits include, a reduction in cases of urinary tract infections (UTIs), and lessening the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). It is interesting to note that the AAP points out flaws in their own Technical Report by stating, “Key studies to date have been performed in African populations with HIV burdens that are epidemiologically different from HIV in the United States” (AAP “Technical” 23). This means the hygiene and sanitation levels in African countries are less than those in the United States. In the United States, sexual education is more prevalent, and condoms are more readily available to sexually active people, which lessen the rate of spreading HIV. The potential health benefits do not “over-ride a child's right to give informed consent...
Whereas, the Sexual Education program promotes safe sex and knowledge of the sex and it’s consequences. The motto would be, “Knowledge is Power.” As a result of this program has decreased the rate of unplanned pregnancy and sexual disease outbreak. This is why it is argued that Sexual Education should be taught in the public school system.
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.