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the overall impact of hiv and aids in south africa
the overall impact of hiv and aids in south africa
the overall impact of hiv and aids in south africa
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HIV/AIDS is still a current public health concern for all countries of the world. Research has helped progress the education and treatment of the virus, but some areas of the world still have difficulty with this public health concern. Out of all developing countries, South Africa has one of the highest percentages of their population living with HIV/AIDS while Cuba has one of the lowest percentages of their population living with the virus. In this paper, the public health policies of South Africa and Cuba regarding treatment, prevention and transmission will be discussed and compared.
South Africa is one of the countries that are part of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS infected people in the world. This region contains 10% of the population of the world and has 60% of HIV/AIDS infected people living in this area (Jacobsen, 2008). By 2007, the amount of people that had died in South Africa that were infected by the virus reached over two million (Gilbert, 2008). Due to the amount of people infected with the virus, the government and medical community of South Africa needed to implement a plan to deal with the epidemic. The National AIDS Coordinating Committee of South Africa (NACOSA) was formed in 1992 to develop a national plan to deal with the issue (South African Government Information, 2007). The National Strategic Plan (NSP) was developed by the NACOSA review in 1999 which focused on the government improving “education, health services, reduction of poverty, the empowerment of women, and the provision of basic services such as shelter, clean water, and sanitation” (South African Government Information, 2007, p. 18). In 2007, the South African government developed a National S...
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Gilbert, L. (2008). Public health and health professionals in the times of HIV/AIDS. South African Review Of Sociology, 39(2), 301-316.
Gorry, C. (2008, July). Cuba’s HIV/AIDS strategy: An integrated, rights-based approach, MEDICC Review: International Journal of Cuban Health and Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.medicc.org/ns/assets/documents/Cuban%20HIV%20Strategy.pdf
Jacobsen, K. H. (2008). Introduction to global health. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Peltzer, K., Preez, N., Ramlagan, S., & Fomundam, H. (2008). Use of traditional complementary and alternative medicine for HIV patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. BMC Public Health, 8255-268.
South African Government Information. (2007, March 12). HIV & AIDS and STI strategic plan for South Africa 2007 – 2011. Retrieved from http://www.info.gov.za/otherdocs/2007/aidsplan2007/index.html
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 federal initiative provides funding for prevention and support programs, research and statistical analysis of HIV/AIDS trends by region of the country (phac-aspc.gc.ca, 2012). The goals of the federal initiative are aimed at preventing the transmission and acquisition of HIV/AIDS, to slow the spread of the disease and improve the quality of life of those infected with disease (phac-aspc.gc.ca, 2012). The overall diagnosis of new HIV/AIDS has decreased in Canada between 1996 and 2012, with a high of 2729 new cases in 1996 and a low of 2062 new cases in 2012, which is an overall reduction of 667 new cases per year (phac-aspc.gc.ca, 2012).
Public health involves a number of factors; it is a science that aims to improve and educate the public in many aspects regarding health. A public health issue that can affect anyone anywhere is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Public Health and HIV is a topic widely researched. Since there is no cure for such a disease, it is important to research and study this virus in hopes of bettering the outcomes for those inflicted with it. Ultimately, HIV can be prevented which is why it is necessary to raise awareness¬ to the public about the disease. After approximately thirty years since the first documentation of AIDS, there are still some misconceptions about HIV such as its potential dangers as well as the unequal
Pasini’s overall thesis is simply that the way HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa should be approached should be changed. Her background, based solely in science and not medicine, leads her to suggest that following the patterns and spread of HIV/AIDS rather than focusing on the control and treatment of it will allow us to successfully stop it in the future. She is both compelling and persuasive in her argument, really making the reader believe what she says. Not only does she use the best possible evidence, firsthand experience, but she also explains what the major issues facing the HIV/AIDS community are in stigmas, marginalization, and organizational problems.
HIV/AIDS is an illness that has been present for over three decades, all regions of the world are affected with this virus, but some regions such as the Sub-Saharan Africa are the worst hit with high incidence and prevalence. HIV is a preventable virus, it is commonly transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing drug injection equipment such as needles with someone that is HIV positive and through other body fluids such as blood, semen, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids and breast milk. South Africa has the largest number of people with HIV majority of these numbers being women. In the study by Rehle et al it is stated that in South Africa (SA) both men and women matured 15-49 years were evaluated to be 2.0 new diseases every year per 100 susceptible
Statistics have been show a frightening increase in AIDS/HIV cases. As of the year 2012, South Africa has had the most cases of HIV/AIDS coming to a total of 6,070,800 ("Country Comparison :: HIV/AIDS”). This is a huge contributing factor to this conspira...
Chelala, Cesar. “HIV/AIDS: Managing a Pandemic.” Americas Vol. 61, No.2. Mar/Apr 2015: 20-26. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 25 Mar. 2015. In this article, Latin America and Caribbean adults have infection rates lower than rates in Africa, but the number of HIV-positive people in this hemisphere is still quite high. It is estimated that in Latin America and the Caribbean, there are two million HIV-infected people. This is more than the number of cases in other countries combined. In 2014, according to United Nations figures, there were 20,000 new infections in the Caribbean and 140,000 in Latin America. Discrimination against HIV-infected people and the humiliation
By the year 2000, 58 million people have been infected by HIV/AIDS and alarming numbers such as 22 million would have already died. And the epidemic continues to spread. HIV/AIDS historically is considered to be one of the longest running worldwide epidemics that we have ever seen, and figures cannot be placed on the true death tolls or estimation of the damage as the cycle still is yet to reach an end (Whiteside 2002). With Africa being the worst hit continent in the world in terms of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the severity of it’s prevalence; one can only begin to question whether HIV/AIDS and poverty and directly connected or the inter-linkages exacerbate one or the other. This paper aims to argue that HIV/AIDS is a manifestation of poverty, and simultaneously poverty contributes to growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Development in response both to poverty reduction and to HIV/AIDS is complicated when both have multi-dimensional and multi-faceted impacts on a society, whether it be social, economic or human development impacts. This paper will argue that pre-existing socio economic conditions within a country such as high levels of poverty, poor sanitation, malnutrition, environmental degradation and poor public healthcare systems and limited access to preventative care are crucial factors in contributing to the transfer of the infection (Pasteur: 2000, Mann: 1999).
Southern Africa has an extremely high prevalence of people living with HIV and this had led many international organizations to work on mitigating the epidemic. The governments of countries in Southern Africa are not able to combat the HIV epidemic alone because they do not have the resources. One reason for this is corruption within the health care system. Many times funding is used to help wealthier citizens, while the average citizen is left with minimal resources and limited access to care. Another political issues that has been detrimental to the HIV epidemic is when governmental procedure is slow and inhibits positive change being enacted through drawn out legal
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.
This book covers a wide range of subtopics on the issue of HIV and AIDS prevalence in South Africa. The authors provide information in a neatly organized way that allows readers to easily find the information they are looking for. The book is divided into 7 sections with multiple chapters in each section. The sections are as follows: Birth of a rapidly growing epidemic, The virus, the human host and their interactions, HIV risk factors and prevention strategies, Focal groups for understanding the HIV epidemic, the impact of AIDS, Treating HIV, and What does the future hold? Sections 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 will provide good background information on my topic for my paper.
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.
A country once in denial now has it’s South African political leaders addressing the disease that is slowing killing their population The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which evolves into acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is affecting South Africa socially as well as economically. This disease is also leaving over a million and a half children orphaned. Most of these children are not only orphaned but living with the virus as well.
Coovadia, H., Jewkes, R., Barron, P., Sanders, D., & McIntyre, D 2009, 'The Health and Health System of South Africa: Historical Roots of Current Public Health Challenges', The Lancet, 374, 9692, p. 817-834, viewed 13 April 2014.
...ile the pandemic will absolutely leverage the rate of financial development, structural alterations are furthermore expected to be one of the prime economic hallmarks of the AIDS pandemic (Arndt 427-449). The effect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic can be visualized by the overwhelming change in mortality rate of South Africans. The yearly number of mortalities from HIV increased distinctly between the years 1997, when about 316,559 people died, and 2006 when an estimated 607,184 people died ("HIV AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA"). Those who are currently assuming the burden of the increase in mortality rate are adolescents and young adults. Virtually one-in-three females of ages 25-29, and over 25% of males aged 30-34, are currently living with HIV in South Africa (UNAIDS). The good news, thanks to better supply of ARV treatment, is that life-expectancy has risen vastly since 2005.