1. I believe that Dr. Zuger chose the people she did because she was trying to get a large amount of differences of infections the patients could contract and also show the patients' similarities in lifestyle and the similarities in the way in which they grew up to try and educate people on the lifestyle one must live to put oneself at higher risk for contracting this terrible disease. The characters all seemed to have come from a home without much love from their family members, or they had something major missing in their life that could have caused a great amount of stress not normally experienced in an average person's life. All of them were uneducated and careless leading us to believe that Dr. Zuger was trying to show that education and responsibility are the best ways to prevent one's contraction of this disease. Some of them got HIV from reckless lifestyles such as drug use involving needle sharing to prostitution while others got it merely by having sex with casual partners. The decision to pick this array of patients again strengthens the fact that Dr. Zuger is trying to tell us that it is possible to get AIDS in many ways and that just because one is having casual sex does not mean that he is immune from its effects. These are probably a few reasons why Dr. Zuger chose them for her book. 2. The human frailty that Deborah Sweet possessed was that she was untrustworthy, she was always trying to get Dr. Zuger to get something for her such as prescriptions for drugs that would sell on the street or get her to write her a note to be allowed to miss court. The human frailty that Michael Soto has was when he first got the HIV virus and when he was using drugs. He is a very nice and willing patient and does not want to burden others with his problems. This shortcoming was very hard to decide on because he was such a good person. Cynthia Wilson's human frailty was that she needs help and that she is uneducated. She thinks that they should just be able to fix her problem without a problem and without delay. She seems to be very ungrateful for all the help she is receiving. She also does not know how to teach her children how to avoid becoming like her.
The majority of the novel is centered around the efforts of Mark and his friends Trina, Alec, and Lana to find the source of this disease and the cure, as they know that they are also probably infected. Along the way, they find Deedee, a young girl who was shot ...
Lastly, I would like to mention something that should be mentioned for the sake of mentioning. As said in the book as well in class, there have been multiple cases of sexual deviance between two males. This cause of AIDS, I found, was not mentioned enough in the book. Although there may be contributing factors as to why it wasn’t, I personally feel that this would be a major factor to the cause of the infection. “Scientists proposed that Haitians may have contracted the virus from monkeys as part of sexual practices in Haitian brothels . . . AIDS might be transmitted between Haitians by voodoo rites, the ingestion of sacrificial animal blood, the eating of cats, ritualized homosexuality.” (Farmer 224) All in all, AIDS & ACCUSATION, however criticized the book may be, inevitably captures the essence of anthropology.
She focuses on the unjust distribution of common good such as health care, and this concern becomes a major theme in her writings. She brings the reader 's attention to the fact that our
...cused of being patient zero and the one who purposely and knowingly infected as many as 250 men a year on both sides of the Atlantic was nothing but one of the many wrong hypotheses made in this process of finding the origin of the HIV/AIDS virus. The fact that he had single handedly started the epidemic, today is largely discredited by most scientists. With time computer models estimated that the first human infection occurred around 1930, give or take 20 years. The earliest known infection of an identified human dates back to 1959 which was found in a plasma sample taken from an adult male living in the Belgian Congo. Many assumptions and hypotheses were made and a human eating a chimp seems to be the likeliest form the infection occurred.
Paul thought it wasn’t them, at least not yet. Neither was it a disease that had positive results. A year later Paul got a call from his best friend, Cesar, he was a teacher in San Francisco, who told Pauls lover that he looked liked he had cancer because of his symptoms, but AIDS didn’t even cross his mind. Cesar would sometimes make jokes about Paul and his lover and joke around about their friendship and them being more serious than a friendship. Cesar wasn’t into anything weird or a...
Chapter Seven lightly touches upon the death of AIDS patients, and the stigmatism's and rejection they may face, but also exhibits the patients' ability to control their moment of death. The joy which a family can gain when there is an open acceptance of a loved ones death is visible in Chapter Eight as John's f...
Moreover, Treichler maintains that although society has become more progressive in its understanding that AIDS is a heterosexual disease just as much as a homosexual one, this advancement does not necessarily disintegrate the “fantasy” surrounding the issue (i.e. ideas about “safer sex”, etc.) Apprehending what one learns from science will obviously be very beneficial to one’s grasping the concept of AIDS in its most basic form, but using this information self-consciously and pragmatically – and knowing that the sometimes contradictory information one takes in might not necessarily be utilizing the correct discourse signifying what AIDS “really” means – will allow one to make sense of the disease as a complete, organized whole.
The book and movie is a detective story, this must read/ must see movie covers all aspects of the disease, from history, to journalism, to politics, to people. Randy Shilts, in his thorough investigative report, highlights the many blunders along the way, blunders that are unbelievable in retrospect. It is not an anti-Republican rant, rather it is a very fair assessment of the collective failure of all entities involved. Because the individuals initially infected were mostly gay or drug users, the public was extremely apathetic. Due to the transmission methods (sodomy, IV drugs, etc.), AIDS was seen as an "embarrassing" disease and was ignored by the media and government officials (federal AND local, Dems AND Reps, Feinstein, Reagan, and many more). Gay activists considered calls for safe sex to be homophobic slurs, scientists were uncooperative and only interested in earning the Nobel Prize, and blood banks were only concerned with the bottom line, refusing to admit that their supplies were contaminated. The "Patient Zero" theory, in which, one extremely promiscuous man knowingly spread the disease to many men in several regions, is touched upon. In addition to the disasters, the director also mentions many heroes, including Rock Hudson (the first celebrity who went public, making the cause more relevant to the general population) and C. Everett Koop (Reagan 's surgeon general who published the first realistic and understandable report on the insidious disease, disregarding common "pc-isms"). Shilts himself was infected with the virus while writing the book, but he did not want to bias the book by getting tested before he was finished. This movie is extremely interesting, well researched, and worth the time
Salem to work as his servant. She was known to practice Obeah, an African cult
Spink, Gemma. "AIDS." AVERTing HIV and AIDS. 23 Dec 2009. Web. 11 Jan 2010. .
Eventually he falls ill and seeks medical attention. The paramedics refuse to carry him to the hospital because of who he was and what he had. After the death of a friend the protagonist met in the hospital who also had AIDS, a nurse is shown throwing his possessions into a garbage bag out of fear of contamination by such items. This movie accurately depicts the both rational and irrational fear of contracting HIV/AIDS that many had around the time of the epidemic as well as the views many health care providers have now, often ignoring their duties as such; as a result, health care providers were and still are often refusing service or hesitant toward patients with
In the movie And the Band Played On, stakeholders’ interests stymied public health efforts to research and implement health policy to control the rapidly emerging disease, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The stakeholders within the movie, those whose interest would be impacted by policy change, included the affected populations, scientists, state and federal public health officials, and organizations including blood banks. Early in the epidemic, the Center for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were tentative in disclosing vital information – many homosexual men were becoming infected in the bathhouses (Pillsbury, Sanford, & Spottiswoode, 1993). Despite having the supporting evidence of patient zero and a sexual cluster
HIV and AIDS are viruses that are very common in today’s society and an issue that has been very popular since the 1980’s. Millions of lives could be saved if the proper steps are taken to educate the less fortunate so they can learn about how to prevent these viruses from being transmitted to one another. It is also important to educate the youth of our society so they know the risks and consequences that could occur if they are not safe while preforming acts that are not part of the norm. When the proper steps are taken to educate, and treat those with HIV and AIDS it can prevent millions of people from dying from these horrible diseases.
(HRSA) What was first thought of as a gay disease quickly became noted as a disease anyone could get through having unprotected sexual intercourse or receiving blood that was from a HIV positive individual had it not been for eighteen year old Ryan White a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS after a blood transfusion the stereotype that it is a “gay” disease would still live on. With widespread panic and the public not having much knowledge of the disease an epidemic swept across the world in the early 1980’s and still continues today. Through much research, public explanation, films, and songs the world quickly understood more about the disease and AIDS victims now are not persecuted as much. In the 90’s a few musicians decided to educate the world through their mus...
There are four letters, that when put together can spell out a lifetime of agony, despair, prejudice and constant indignation; AIDS. Over the years the disease has been called GRID, Gay Cancer and finally came the name that is commonly accepted today, AIDS. Multiple theories are present as to the origin of this deadly virus, all of them are unique but no matter what the origin or name, AIDS is a terrible epidemic that needs to come to an end. People have suffered long enough, and too many people have been discriminated against something that’s not entirely their fault. The medicine for AIDS only prolongs the inevitable, and suffering of the poor people cursed with the disease. AIDS as of now is a death sentence and it currently has no cure; it targets people of every race, age, and gender from all walks of life but despite AIDS only being been around for less than a century, it has managed to leave an immense impact on American history, individuals, society and culture.