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Essay about AIDS awareness
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The lack of knowledge in today’s world is a major issue. It is causing the spread of many dangerous health problems. One in particular is AIDS, which stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Yes, people hear about it; however, the spread continues. With higher knowledge of everything that goes hand and hand with it, the spread can be put to a stop. HIV/AIDS Awareness is the most effective way to end the worldwide spread of this killer disease.
Before getting into the deep details of HIV/AIDS, one must know and understand the background behind it. AIDS was first known as an infection of chimpanzees and old world monkeys throughout the African rainforest; within the twentieth century, the virus eventually jumped from monkeys to humans (Pham-Kanter). Knowing that any type of disease that once only infected animals can also infect humans can make anyone terrified of life itself. Although this is the origin that many people believe to be true, the questions behind where it may really come from is the main reason people are not as interested as they should be to become aware. The first cases of AIDS in the United States were diagnosed in 1981 among homosexual men, in Los Angeles, due to them having opportunistic lung infections (Pham-Kanter). This is when things really began to hit home bringing great fear to many families throughout the U.S. It had traveled from undeveloped countries to the United States, which is a well developed country, making people both reluctant and fearful of even becoming aware of this killer disease. People of the U.S. often think that diseases as such cannot affect the United States; however, this is not the case, and the number of those infected in both the U.S. and other countries has r...
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... AIDS Test.” Washington Post 1 Dec. 2008: n.pag. Rpt. as “Mandatory HIV Testing Will Save Lives.” Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 12 Jan. 2012.
“Legal Issues.” AIDS. U.S.Department of Health and Human Services. 28 July 2011. Web. 12 Jan. 2012.
Levie Eleanor. "The Right Is Wrong About Sex Education.” The Philadelphia Jewish Voice Sept. 2007: n.pag. Rpt. as “The Government Should Fund Comprehensive Sex Education Programs.” Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 12 Jan. 2012.
McIntyre, Bradford. "HIV Disclosure." PositivelyPositive. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.
Pham-Kanter, Genevieve, Tish Davidson, and Rebecca J. Frey. "Aids." The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Ed. Jacqueline L. Longe. 3rd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Health and Wellness Center. Web. 12 Jan. 2012.
“Preventing HIV/AIDS." UNFPA. United Nations Population Fund. Web. 13 Jan. 2012.
AIDS/HIV was first recognized as a new disease in the US when clinicians in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco began to see young, homosexual men with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and Kaposi 's sarcoma (KS), unusual diseases for young adults which were not known to be immunosuppressed. These discoveries led to increased fear throughout the US since many people didn’t know what caused AIDS, how it could be contracted, or even what to call it.
"HIV/AIDS Basics." AIDS.gov. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. . Regularly maintained by the U.S. Dept. of HHS
The spread of aids threatens our population daily. Lives lost to it number over 12 million, including 2 mil...
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was first recognized as a new disease in 1981 when increasing numbers of young homosexual men succumbed to unusual opportunistic infections and rare malignancies (Gallant49).During this time, many people were contacting this disease because it was not discovered yet and people did not have knowledge about it.Scientists believe HIV came from a particular kind of chimpanzee in Western Africa. Humans contracted this disease when they hunted and ate infected animals. A first clue came in 1986 when a morphologically similar but antigenically distinct virus was found to cause AIDS in patients in western Africa (Goosby24). During this time, scientists had more evidence to support their claim about this disease. Once discovered this disease was identified as a cause of what has since become one of the most devastating infectious diseases to have emerged in recent history (Goosby101). This disease was deadly because it was similar to the Black Death, it was killing majority of the population. Since its first identification almost three decades ago, the pandemic form of HIV-1 has infected at least 60 million people and caused more than 25 million deaths ...
Spink, Gemma. "AIDS." AVERTing HIV and AIDS. 23 Dec 2009. Web. 11 Jan 2010. .
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). These two conditions have caused so much heartache and pain since the 1980s. One of the first signs of AIDS in America was in 1981, and was found in a homosexual man that was inflicted with Pneumocystis pneumonia, a fungal pneumonia. Upon inspection, the doctor observed that the man did not have any helper cells; cells that would help the ailed young man fight the infection. Following this several other young homosexual men were admitted to hospitals with the same problem. The following year hemophiliacs were observed to have been inflicted with the same problem and this disease was finally given a name, AIDS. The year 1983 brought about the identification of the virus, HIV. Even to this day many AIDS is still a problem that continues to affect many people.
In 1981 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report first rare cases of what is seemingly pneumonia in young gay men. These cases were then grouped together and the disease known as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) takes its root in American Society. This disease spread quickly and the events following are responses to the spread of the disease in America known as the AIDS Crisis, where the response of both the people and the government would impact and change society and American culture and lead to emergence of a gay identity, persecution and fear of those with the disease, marketing of safe sex, and the deterioration of class barriers.
"Demanding that life near AIDS is an inextricably other reality denies our ability to recreate a sustaining culture and social structures, even as we are daily required to devote such time to the details of the AIDS crisis." -Cindy Patton
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.
Recent Development in Health Law. (2004). American Journal of Law & Medicine , 32:1, 174-177.
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...
Stine, Gerald James. AIDS Update 2012: An Annual Overview of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
This paper discusses various arguments by the proponents and opponents of mandatory HIV testing in two scenarios.
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.
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.