HIV/AIDS is a dangerous disease that affects the immune system. Once you have the HIV virus in your body you cannot get rid of it, it is there for life. That is why there are many key points that could help in our fight against HIV/AIDS. Some major points are communication, education, and testing. People not only in Africa, need to talk about it, they need to be aware of it, and they need to get the care they need to fight it.
Many people tend to be ethnocentric towards HIV/AIDS in Africa. When people think HIV positive or ADIS they tend to imagine Africans who have been in many relationships or an African woman who got raped. They might think that these HIV positive people are gay or bisexual men. They tend to reject them or be afraid that
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Here are a few:
Shared instruments:
Many researchers believe that the use of shared or unsterilized needles could be responsible for AIDS in Africa. Injection doctors who are untrained practitioners that travel and administrate over the counter drugs. They use the medical equipment from one person to another without cleaning or sanitizing it.
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In its fight against HIV/AIDS in Cameroon PEPFAR arranges investments to help save people suffering from the disease. In a two year effort 300,000 children living with the disease where able to receive the lifesaving antiretroviral treatment or ART. Its priorities are “preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV; scaling-up access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment among those most in need, particularly key and priority populations; supporting health systems strengthening with a focus on improving health information systems, human resources for health, laboratory and blood safety systems, and supply chain management; and strengthening the continuum of care and treatment and ensuring linkages in the delivery of HIV prevention, care, and treatment across all levels of care”("Partnering to Achieve Epidemic Control in
The country’s first cases of HIV were detected in 1982. About 2.6 million Ugandans were infected while 1.6 million people lost their lives to the HIV/AIDS illness. HIV/AIDS is a massive issue which currently, 7.2 percent of Uganda’s population is living with. 90% of HIV cases are discovered in developing countries and Uganda has the 7th highest number of HIV cases reported all over the world. This amounts to an estimated 1.4 million people, which includes approximately 190,000 children. In 2011 an estimated 62,000 people died from AIDS and 1.1 million children have been orphaned due to the virus. HIV is more common in women at 5.4 percent, compared to 2.4 percent prevalence rate amongst men. Developing countries such as Uganda have less money to support their basic necessities. Majority of these people do not have enough money to purchase health care to help keep them safe from the virus. As well in Uganda there is a lack of education about how HIV/AIDS is transmitted. Children need to be educate...
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.
According to the CDC, almost 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV, yet almost 20% of those people are unaware that they are living with the condition (CDC, 2013c). When the HIV broke out almost 30 years ago in the United States, the number of new cases in a year was 130,000. Now, each year the new number of cases being presented is approximately 50,000 (CDC, 2013c). In locations like Sub-Saharan Africa, the statistics are higher. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) states, “In 2011, an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69% of the global HIV burden” (UNAIDS, 2012). The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforces this point by saying, “Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region [of HIV], with nearly 1 in every 20 adults living with HIV. Sixty nine per cent of all people living with HIV are living in this region” (WHO, 2013a). The statistics of infected people living in the United States is alarming but there are other countries, like Africa, which have higher rates of HIV due to very limited
...ns; it affects us all in every aspect of our lives. Thanks to the efforts made for research , and treatments have been made to control the virus. Most importantly, the HIV/AIDS virus cannot replicate violently in the immune system because of these treatments. I think humans hold the real key to cure, if they would think about there actions before they do them, then we can save a lot more lives from the virus and stop the spread of it. Sharing needles with infected individual is a way of acquiring the disease. If we do this the percentage of people with HIV/AIDS will decrease significantly. If we do the little things to help solve this big health issue, it might help find the cure. So it is important that information about this virus is being shard and education is being taught to people all over the world who are not familiar with the virus to help the spread of it.
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.
time as well as forward. They determined that the first cases of AIDS in the
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...
HIV is a virus that can be sexually transmitted, obtained through hypodermic needles or contaminated blood transfusions, or passed on from mother to child through pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. It starts off with flu-like symptoms, then it interferes with the immune system, making people prone to illnesses. Their immune system becomes very vulnerable. Sadly, there is no cure for HIV. Research shows that HIV originated in Africa; however, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was not recognized until 1981. HIV is a source of heavy castigation and it causes economic problems as well, especially count...
HIV is a battle that has existed for a long time and is still an uphill battle for those affected. This sickness has not only hurt the people but it has grown to affect the economy and politics of numerous countries and regions like America and South Africa. Therefore, the stance on the resilience has grown over the past forty years. It has existed and grown and has come to be one of the biggest social issues in the world. It has become so intertwined with society that it has had lasting affects on all divisions of the world and those divisions are economic divisions, political division, and social divisions within Africa, America, and Asia.
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.
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.
There is more than enough data that shows the extent to which AIDS cripples millions of individuals and households around the globe. Also, there are verified methods we can take to address this pandemic. We, as citizens of the world, need to recognize the severity of this problem and take action. Those in power must better distribute resources so that more is spent on saving the families and lives of AIDS stricken patients.
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.
... diseases such as AIDS are also becoming a problem in places like Africa. Knowledge of how to prevent these diseases is not widely known, so an increasing number of people are infected. More attention needs to be placed on adequate health care and technology in these countries. While these third world societies may not have the resources with which to implement these changes, more advanced societies certainly do.