A minute has gone by; has anything changed?
You may not see a sudden change but in that minute,
six children became infected with HIV, which totals
8,500 children and young people becoming infected
with HIV a day. HIV stands for Human immunodeficiency virus.
A person who has HIV is susceptible to many different
diseases and viral infections, because the virus
gradually destroys the immune system.
Once a person becomes infected with HIV, they will
eventually enter the deadly last stage called AIDS.
AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
"It is characterized by signs and symptoms of severe
immune deficiency" (Yahoo 1).
AIDS has become a major problem facing children
today, because so many children have or will die from it.
Since a lot of children die from AIDS, it has become ranked
seventh among the leading cause of death for the United States
within the age range of one to fourteen. In the year 1996 the United
States had 7,629 cases of AIDS in children who are younger than thirteen
and 2,754 cases were reported within the young adult range of thirteen to
nineteen. In the same year (1996) it is estimated that 1.3 million children
died from AIDS. There are a lot of children being infected with and or
dying from AIDS as the year's progress. Startling projections about the
year 2000 have been made. The projections for the year 2000 are that five
to ten million children will be infected HIV/AIDS, and that same number
of children will be orphaned by it (The National 1).
Children are dying of HIV/AIDS because there is no cure yet to be found.
The only thing that can be done to help someone with HIV/AIDS is to
try and prolong the virus's deadly effects, so the person with AIDS can
hopefully live a longer life. The only way to prolong the virus is to
follow doctor's orders and take medications like AZT (A drug that helps people
with HIV/AIDS, by following this advice a person can only hope that it will help them.
So if there is no cure for HIV/AIDS than why do so many people contract it
knowing that they will eventually die? The reason older people contract AIDS
is usually because they are careless and have either unprotected sex or they use drugs.
... Other contributing factors could be the person’s gender, generational differences, religion, or fear of retaliation.
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.
Risk factors involve the child itself and the parent or caretaker. Risk factors for the child consist of male gender, history of colic, prematurity, low birth weight, drug/nicotine/alcohol exposure, or withdrawal syndrome, special needs or medically fragile and babies with poor bonding to caregivers (Meskauskas, Beaton, & Meservey, 2009, p. 326). Young parental age, unstable family environment, low soc...
Everyday researchers have proposed new methods of how to control the HIV virus from turning into AIDS. A combination of effective HIV medicines help stop the formation of new copies of HIV as it reproduces in your body. This technique helps to keep your CD-4 cell count up and your viral load down. CD-4 cells are one type of immune cells that assist to fight off the virus, the higher your count the stronger your immune system (Nakashima 77). Whereas, your viral load is a measure of HIV in your blood and your treatment goal is to have the lowest viral load possible. People with higher viral loads tend to progress to AIDS and become sick sooner than those with lower viral loads (Nakashima 80). Successful HIV medications can prevent other infections common with AIDS and can help you live longer.
Spink, Gemma. "AIDS." AVERTing HIV and AIDS. 23 Dec 2009. Web. 11 Jan 2010. .
As recently as 1990, there were some regions of the world that had remained relatively unscathed by AIDS. Today, however, there is not a single country around the world which has wholly escaped the AIDS epidemic. As the epidemic has matured, some of the developed nations which were hard hit by the epidemic in the 1980s such as the United States have reported a slowing in the rate of new infections and a stabilization among existing cases with lower mortality rates and an extension of post-diagnosis lifespan. However, despite the changing face of the global AIDS pandemic, one factor remains unchanged: no region of the world bears a higher AIDS-related burden than sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the demographic effects of AIDS in Africa, focusing on the hardest-hit countries of sub-Saharan Africa and considers the present and future impact of the AIDS epidemic on major demographic measures such as fertility, mortality, life expectancy, gender, age, and family structure.
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.
Age, he/she usually takes their life and alters it to a stage where there is no
...trive to live normal lives. Scientists also struggle to create a vaccine to get rid of HIV permanently. It is an important live saving decision to practice safe sex or abstinence and also to avoid the using needles to inject drugs.
In 1981, was the beginning of what is commonly known now today as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which is one of the biggest epidemics of history (1). As of today, there is over 1.1 million people in the United States living with HIV/AIDS (1). Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV is a complex immune virus that is capable of destroying ones immune system, leaving there body defenseless. As a result of a deficient immune system there is a whole plethora of comorbidities that accompany the HIV virus. It has been reported the HIV-1 and HIV-2 are the more virulent. With no cure, there are only current medications that help depresses the progression of the virus, and with very little signs and symptoms it is easily transmitted. Even though there are no direct physical therapy interventions for people with HIV, certain physical therapy protocols can help depress the progressive destruction of the virus along with keeping the comorbidities at bay.
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.
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...
Several causes for teen pregnancy are: the need for affection, acceptance, and unprotected sex. One may have a poor home life and look for affection from a peer. The simple desire to feel loved by another person may be a cause for an unexpected pregnancy. A teen may have a low self-esteem and simply be looking for acceptance in the bedroom. However, many teens that have a wonderful, affectionate family and are very confidante are merely looking for the few minutes of pleasure and avoid using protection. As several teens use the excuse that sex feels better with out a condom, an unwanted pregnancy is likely to occur.
then lead to mental health issues in their adolescent and adult years. Being able to
No cure or vaccine now exists for AIDS. Many of those infected with HIV may not