HIV/AIDS is one of the deadliest diseases in the world today. HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system, making us prone to many infections. It can be transmitted in various ways; for example, by coming in contact with bodily fluids by unprotected sex, reusing needles when doing drugs or getting tattooed, being born to an HIV infected mother, etc. Millions of people are getting infected by HIV around the world. According to World Health Organization, “[. . .] In 2014, 1.2 [1.0–1.5] million people died from HIV-related causes globally [and] there were approximately 36.9 [34.3–41.4] million people living with HIV at the end of 2014 with 2.0 [1.9–2.2] million people becoming newly infected with HIV in 2014 globally.” These numbers show how …show more content…
This will lead to open discussions within families and societies. Open discussions about HIV/AIDS have been proven to have effect in reducing the number of infections, especially in countries like Rwanda and Uganda. In “AIDS, Inc.,” Helen Epstein says that “[. . .] the only African country that had seen a nationwide decline in HIV prevalence was
Uganda. [. . .] a powerful role was played by the ordinary, but frank, conversations people had
[. . .] about the frightening, calamitous effects of AIDS itself” (158). Direct discussions about HIV/AIDS are very effective in raising the awareness. The awareness campaigns and sex education teachers should encourage people to have those conversations. By getting to know people with the disease, the people will be able to have meaningful conversations that will motivate them to abstain from sex and drugs. Some might argue that by getting to know people, the awareness process would be slow and less effective. I agree that awareness process would be slow. Taking time to get to know the HIV infected people can be time consuming, but I don’t agree with the method being less effective. In fact, it is very effective because it allows people to understand in detail about the consequences of HIV/AIDS. In “AIDS Inc.,” Helen Epstein talks about her visit to
Raffaele, Paul. "Uganda: The Horror." Smithsonian (Vol. 35, No. 11). Feb. 2005: 90-99. SIRS Issues
The spread of aids threatens our population daily. Lives lost to it number over 12 million, including 2 mil...
"Uganda - African Economic Outlook." African Economic Outlook - Measuring the Pulse of Africa. 06 Nov. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. .
Throughout history many people have been afraid of catching AIDS (Acquiring Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Many people used to, and some still do, think that being around anyone who has AIDS could catch AIDS themselves. People have been and will probably always be ignorant when it comes to AIDS. One of the few people who have AIDS addressed the nation, her name was Mary Fisher. In 1992 she gave a speech titled “A Whisper of AIDS” to bring awareness about it to the nation.
HIV is one of the global public health issues that have taken millions of lives till date. According to the CDC (2016), HIV has taken about 1.2 million people lives globally. The prevalence of HIV infected people is very high. There were approximately 36.9 million people who were living with HIV, with about 2.0 million people are newly infected with HIV in 2014 globally (CDC, 2016).
According to WHO in 2007, “more than 95% of HIV cases are in developing countries, with two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa. “ In addition, there were 2.1 million deaths related to HIV and 2.5 million...
The main point of this speech, was Mary Fisher’s demand for an end to the silence and prejudice surrounding HIV/AIDS and to inform about the spread of infection. She begins the speech with strong influential words of willingness to inform her listeners. This bears the message of how important and personal the
Helwig-Larson, M., & Collins, B. (1997, April 1). A Social Psychological Perspective on the Role of Knowledge about AIDS in AIDS Prevention. Current Directions in Psychological Science , Vol. 6 (No. 2).
AIDS- Not a Whisper Anymore 1.2 million people in our country do not know that they are infected by AIDS (Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Back in the 90’s HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death. AIDS is not/was a topic that was embraced in our daily conversations and was usually dealt in the shadows. People suffering had no one to share their grief/feelings with. This disease spread by and through loved ones, networking through people mainly of the age between 18-25 it spread like wildfire throughout the country.
There are a lot of social issues around our lives that we still can not solve. They are just like the toxic beetles, gradually eating our lives. People always say that they try to overcome these problems but they still haven’t tried hard on this yet. There is a social issue, an important problem that everyone and country over the world should improve and against, it is HIV/AIDS.
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...
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.
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.
AIDS is a disease that is transmitted easily through unprotected sexual intercourse, sharing of needles, blood transfusion, and childbirth. 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. Among those impacts, the impact on households is the most significant and severe. This paper will discuss the various ways AIDS affects families and the most effective ways of solving this issue.
HIV does not only affect the well-being of individuals, it has large impacts on households, communities and even nations as a whole. Peer discussions and personal research has also made me realize that some of the countries suffering from this HIV epidemic also rather unfortunately suffer from other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, relative poverty and economic stagnation. Despite these setbacks, new inte...